Tough Love
by Alice W. Rabbit
Summary: Who knew the Goddess of Love could be so cruel? Is this some kind of joke, turning the only Viking still petrified of dragons into a Nightfury? Toothless/Oc
1. Chapter 1: Introduction

**Holy cow, not another one! So sorry faithful watchers; you'll just have to suffer through another cliché story with a foreign oc shoved into the plot! Arg, I can't help it, by brain just thinks these stories up! **

**If you don't like Ocs, don't read. If you don't like human-to-animal transformations, then, also, don't read and go away!**

**Very short first chapter, but I swear they'll get longer!**

**Told in Hiccup's POV, OC's POV and a little bit of Narrative POV (meaning no-one in particular)**

**Chapter One: Introductions**

Frigma wasn't your average Viking. Sure, she might have looked fine on the outside; she was tall, strong, a little heavy-set, able to defend herself and willing to do so at the cost of others. She had all the personality traits one would associate with a Viking, but if took the time to get to know Frigma, you'd understand why she's different. You'd discover that she keeps a journal of pressed flowers she picks during the short summer season, she loves music, she couldn't kill anything even if she tried, and she's secretly terrified of dragons, even though Berk had been at peace with the brutes for over ten years. That alone would send up a red flag, but we still haven't touched on the most important and blatant difference between Frigma Svenson and your average Viking woman: Frigma is completely deaf.

She was born on a quiet spring morning, 12 years prior to the death of the Queen Dragon, to Bjanca Svenson, a young widow. Frigma's father was killed by dragons three months before she was born. She was a quiet child; maybe a little too quiet, but not even her mother seemed to understand what was wrong with Frigma until she was about five years old. It was during a dragon raid that Frigma, in the chaos and confusion, ran outside and got lost in a crowd of warriors, charging off to face the dragon menace. Her mother kept calling for her, but Frigma couldn't hear her, and when she finally saw her mother, it was too late. A Monstrous Nightmare already had hold of her and effectively burned her right arm and shoulder.

Frigma grew up almost normal; she could read and write and she even got the hang of reading lips. She learned how to know when someone's walking up behind her by the vibrations in the ground, and she can even identify what kind of dragon is flying overhead, just by their shadow! She's a pretty smart girl, even by my standards, but I didn't ever really know her that well. I was fifteen when Toothless and I defeated the Dragon Queen, and she was only 12. Three years isn't all that much time in the long run, but when you're only barely hanging on to the shred of popularity you have by the skin of your teeth, you really don't want to associate yourself with anyone who might drag you down even further. Cruel, I know, but back then…I didn't have anyone. She didn't have anyone either, but at least she was deaf and couldn't hear the taunts. Frigma the Deaf, Frigma heavystep, and so on.

Once the dragons and the Vikings made peace with each other, there seemed to be a mutual understanding that every Viking was to pick out a dragon for themselves to train, but Frigma never did. It's not like she avoids them; it's so hard to now, they're everywhere! But she certainly doesn't go out of her way to be friendly to dragons. And how could she train one, anyway? She can't talk, or, she can't talk well. If and when she does speak, her words are all garbled and no-one can understand her; one of the pitfalls of being deaf I guess. It really is a shame; she has a very pretty voice, almost as pretty as Astrid's.

And one day, she just seemed to disappear. She was always very reserved and liked to stay out of the way, it was hard to notice when she came or went, but one day she just ran into the forest beyond the village, and never came back. Well, she did come back, but, it was almost 20 years after her disappearance! She never spoke about what happened to her during her 20 year absence, how could she? It wasn't until….but I'm getting way ahead of myself here. I don't know the whole story, but I'm sure Toothless does. You should go ask him. Oh, well, he can't talk, but you'll understand, even without words, he's a great story-teller.


	2. Chapter 2: Shattered Silence

**Chapter Two: Shattering Silence**

Why were they all so stupid! She hated them! She hated every last one of those stupid Vikings! They were all morons and deserved an extended vacation in Hell! Frigma didn't care where she was going, and she didn't care if she had to go help the healer in thirty minutes. She was just trying to get away from it all.

"_I'm not blind!_" She thought miserably, smearing the tears on her cheeks away. "_It's not like I can't read lips!_" She couldn't understand why everyone in Berk had to make such a big deal out of her deafness. Nobody EVER talked about Hiccup's leg, it was like an unspoken rule. She didn't see how that was any different.

Her feet kept getting tripped up by roots and undergrowth as she dove deeper and deeper into the thick forest past the Village. She was running from the hurtful words flung at her; Snotlout thought just because she couldn't hear them, it made it okay to say them. Frigma was exceptionally good at reading lips, and had caught every venom-soaked word. It was horrible, and not to mention embarrassing! She couldn't stand it! Not anymore!

Frigma didn't stop running until she was sufficiently lost, but she didn't care. Her eyes were bleary and she couldn't see past the veil of tears, so, seeing no better place to do it, she flung herself down at the base of a particularly tall tree, and started bawling. She didn't care if it sounded weird, she didn't care if anyone heard her; she hadn't cried in so long, it felt good to just get all the raw emotions out. Why had the Gods created her like this? Why was she born 'broken'? Was this some sort of punishment? What had she ever done, she'd just been a baby! Was this because of her father's crimes? Were the Gods so angry that her Father was so reckless in battle and killed one of his own brothers, that they'd punish his innocent child? It wasn't fair, and it made Frigma sob even harder. "_What's the point of living if I can't even experience it right?_"

She pounded her fist on the tree. "_Do you hear me, Gods! Just kill me now! I don't even care anymore! I know what everyone says about me; I've no use in Berk! At least if I'm dead, they'll have one less mouth to feed this winter!_" And she meant every word. She didn't want to return to a village where she new everyone thought badly of her. She couldn't speak, couldn't hear, and couldn't follow commands because she didn't know what was being said. She was useless. And she knew it all too well.

Unfortunately for Frigma, the Gods didn't descend from Asgard to strike her down, and she ended up laying at the roots of that tree for hours, just staring at the dirt. She couldn't even bring herself to sit up, and eventually, she just fell asleep on the ground. She was lucky it was the dry season; they hadn't had rain or hail for 3 whole days! But while she slept, she didn't dream; which was weird for Frigma. She usually had such vivid dreams, filled with color and people and sunlight (she had happy dreams), but nothing that night. Her sleep was shallow and unrestful, and she ended being startled awake around midnight.

At first, she didn't know what she was looking at. Her eyes were blinded by the light, and for a minute, she had thought the moon had crashed into the earth! But it wasn't the moon, and as her eyes grew accustomed to the light, she realized she was looking at a woman. The woman's hair was shinning like gold, and she was clothed in a dress appearing to be woven from the rays of the sun. Frigma slapped her hand over her mouth, though she knew she wouldn't make any noise; it was just a habit. The woman was standing across from Frigma, smiling sweetly, and she seemed to almost be hovering above the ground. But the most surprising thing came when the woman opened her mouth.

"Greetings, Child of Silence," She trilled, in a voice that sounded exactly like honey tasted. Frigma jumped about a foot in the air, so startled by her sudden ability to hear, that she almost smacked her head against a low-lying tree branch. The woman only chuckled and reached out to take Frigma's hand. "Don't be frightened, I'm here to bestow a gift upon you."

"You're going to make me hear, right?" Frigma tried to say, but as she spoke the words, found that she still couldn't hear herself. What actually came out of her mouth was "Yoher gonmake my hart?" But she just couldn't hear the words out of her mouth. She gasped and touched her face with the hand she'd been extending for the shinning woman to take, and almost burst out crying again. The smile faltered on the woman's face, and she let her hand drop.

"I'm not able to make you hear in your own body." She said, her eyes travelling to the ground. Frigma wanted to ask her how she could hear the shinning woman talk then, but didn't know how. But that didn't seem to matter, the woman looked up and smiled. "My name is Freya, my child," she said. "You don't need to voice your questions out loud for me to hear them, and my divinity transverses all physical abilities." That didn't really make sense to Frigma, but she didn't care. She was in the presence of a GOD! A real GOD had come down to speak to her! This seemed almost too good to be true.

"_Then what are you here for?_" she thought, hoping Freya was right and she could read her mind. She was inwardly praying the Gods hadn't actually acknowledged her earlier wish to die and had sent Freya to kill her. Freya, sensing this, laughed and stepped forward to embrace Frigma.

"Dear Frigma, you are much too special, even in the eyes of the Gods, to kill! No, I've come to, as I said, give you a gift." She let go of the mortal and withdrew something from a pocket in her dress made of sunshine. She held the something cupped in her hand, and Frigma couldn't see it. If Freya wasn't here to restore her hearing, what could she possible give her? Freya heard this too and her smile doubled.

"But Frigma, I WILL restore your hearing! I never said that was beyond my power!" And she opened her hands for Frigma to see. But Frigma didn't actually see anything, because the next thing she knew, she was flat on the ground, pinned to the dust by an invisible force. What was this crazy woman doing to her! It felt like something was trying to force its way through her heart, and Frigma let out a scream of agony. What was happening to her? How was this going to restore her hearing? It felt like her skin was on fire! She didn't have the strength to move her head to check if her skin was actually on fire, and besides, there was something more pressing to deal with. Her eyes started rolling back into her head, and it was almost like they were being sucked into her skull! She couldn't see, she couldn't speak past screams, her fingers were being stretched, her legs were being compressed, her bones cracked, her back snapped, her hair fell out! You name it, it happened to Frigma, and even if to her, it felt like an eternity, the whole transformation only took a few seconds.

When she was finally able of coherent thought again, she opened her eyes and gasped for breath. She was lying on her back, but something didn't feel right. There was a prodding sensation in her back, like she was lying on a branch or something. And there was something wrong with her eyes, too! It was clearly night time, but she could see with such clarity she could have sworn it was noon! Every single leaf on the tree above her was thrown into sharp focus, ever membrane of the green plant visible. What was going on? She would have propped herself up onto her elbows, if she could have, but found that her arms were too short and she fell back onto her back. What was that? Why were her arms too short? She looked down and

Frigma leapt up into the air as she saw her own black, scaly skin, and crashed back down onto her face. Her body was twisted all wrong, her back wasn't straight, and she found that she was a lot more flexible than she was used to being. And was that…Oh Gods, she had a tail! And not just any tail; it was the biggest, scaliest, clumsiest tail she'd ever seen! Those fins, the spines running down it, this all could only mean one thing:

"_I'M A NIGHTFURY!_" Frigma screeched in her head, letting out an audible screech, which really sounded a bit like a bark. Wait, she just heard herself bark! She could hear! She could hear! If not for the fact that she was totally terrified of dragons, and that she was now the very beast she despised most in the world, she would have wept for joy. Turning her eyes to the God who'd done this to her, she silently pleaded for some kind of explanation. "_Why did you do this!_ Freya covered her mouth with her hand and giggled.

"This is what you wanted, no?" She asked, her radiant face the picture of a perfect smile. "_NO!"_ Frigma thought back, hoping the God felt the sting in her unspoken words. Freya didn't seem fazed, but the light she emitted started to dim. "You wanted to hear, so I gave you the gift of sound!" She trilled once more. She was starting to fade! NO! Frigma leapt at the spot where she had been standing, or rather floating, but by the time she could make her new body move, the sparkling Goddess was already gone.

"_What am I going to do!"_ Frigma thought, letting out another bark, and then a whine. She couldn't stay a Nightfury! She was a human, not a dragon! What about her family!

No, this wasn't happening. Why would the Goddess of Love come down to Earth to the most useless Viking in Berk and turn her into a dragon? It was impossible, and she was just dreaming! That was it, this was all a dream! She sat down, and looked at her feet. Well, claws. She'd go to sleep, and when she woke up in the morning, she'd just be Frigma again, and everything would just eb a bad memory. That was it!

But Frigma had a hard time falling asleep. And again, she had no dreams.


	3. Chapter 3: Intruder

**Chapter Three: Intruder**

Toothless didn't want to get up. It was too early, and what he really wanted to do was give the boy jostling him awake a good kick in the stomach. But he wouldn't do that, not to Hiccup. But honestly, the sun was just barely over the horizon, why did they ALWAYS have to wake so early? When Toothless had been wild, before he met Hiccup and lost his tailfin, he'd slept all day and flown all night. Having to walk around and be alert while the sun was still up was just not in his nature. He was called a _Night_fury, after all.

"C'mon, Buddy, we have to get up!" Empty words coming from the little human; Toothless didn't understand any of it. But he guessed Hiccup was telling him to stop sleeping; like usual. He just tucked his head under his wind and smacked Hiccup's hand away with his tail; not hard enough to hurt, but hopefully forceful enough to keep him away. Hiccup yelped, but Toothless knew he wasn't hurt, Hiccup was just a master at crocodile tears.

"_I'm not getting up,_" the black dragon thought dismally, but all that really left his mouth was a series of warbled grumbles. To this, his rider just snorted and, to Toothless's displeasure, started trying to pull him out the door by his tail. He wasn't getting very far, but you can't expect anyone to sleep while being jerked across a splintery wood floor, can you? Toothless got up and shook his head. Fine, he was awake. But he wasn't happy about it.

**(Page Break)**

Toothless tromped through town next to his friend, keeping one eye on Hiccup's metal leg and one eye on those tasty looking sheep in the pasture to his left….No! Bad, Toothless! How could he even be thinking about eating those mouthwatering sheep when the Vikings provided all the dragons with all the fish they could eat? Yes, because fish was a great substitute for juicy lambs meat…slimy, scaly fish….

Toothless shook his head. He needed to get him mind off of food. What else was there to think about? Flying…no. He couldn't do that without Hiccup, and Hiccup was, ugg, working. Though Toothless didn't know why; Gobber was always at the Forge, why did he need such a scrawny Hiccup around for? Well, flying was out, and unfortunately, so was sleeping. What else, what else? Toothless sat down abruptedly and scratched his ear. Besides those three things, there really wasn't much else to do around Berk. Wow, he'd never realized, but his life was pretty boring.

"Toothless? What are you doing?" Hiccup stopped and turned to look at his friend. Toothless yawned and blinked at the boy. "_I'm bored!_" he thought. He longed to be able to talk to his human, and it was so lamentable humans were too dim-witted to be able to speak Dragon-tongue. All they could do was squawk at each other in those naisly voices of theirs; how primitive! Dragons had an entire language based off of body-language and a few expression changes, and if that wasn't advanced, Toothless didn't know what was.

"C'mon Toothless, what's wrong with you today?"

"_What's wrong with you?_" Toothless thought, flapping his wings a bit. "_All you want to do is work. Well, I'm done with work! I want to go flying today!"_ He knew he hadn't said anything out loud, but as always, Hiccup knew just what Toothless was thinking.

"I know, buddy! But I've gotta get down to the forge, and Astrid's been on my back about patching up the wall, where, might I remind you, there is a HUGE hole from where you 'sneezed' last week, and-" Toothless snorted and whined, something he hardly ever did. Whining was so below him, only dragonlings and Terrors did that, but he felt that Hiccup needed to be reminded who his best friend was. He seemed to get the message. Hiccup sighed and walked over to Toothless, and gave him a scratch behind the ear.

"Okay, fine. We'll go flying, but first, let me just check in at the forge; make sure everything's still okay. I swear, Gobber's ganna burn down the place one of these days!"

**(Page Break)**

Toothless loved flying. It was the best feeling in the world to soar through the clouds, dive and twist through the air. He knew he'd never fly solo again; Hiccup made plenty sure of that; but he wasn't in any rush to be on his own again. He didn't mind Hiccup flying with him, though it was annoying when Hiccup was distracted and kept accidentally steering Toothless into trees. That boy needed to get his head out of the clouds! Well, actually, not literally. Literally speaking, he needed to start bringing his head back into the clouds, and off of work and whatever else it is that he does. Toothless already had a face full of pine needles, and they'd only been flying for five minutes!

"_Watch it, wonder boy!_" he grumbled, righting himself after a collision with an evergreen. "_I knew we should have flown over the ocean. No trees in the ocean."_ Hiccup patted his head, in between the dragon's eyes, right where he liked it.

"Sorry, Toothless. I keep getting distracted!" Hiccup apologized. Toothless tossed his head and rolled his green eyes. He was probably saying he was sorry. Well, Toothless forgave him, but again, he didn't like it. He remembered the days when he and Hiccup would fly for hours on end, and Hiccup never once crashed him into a tree. Why had things changed? Why was Hiccup always so airheaded these days? Weren't humans supposed to mature with age?

They didn't crash into any more trees for quite some time, but they were just prolonging the inevitable. Toothless knew it was coming from a long way away, and Hiccup was not paying attention. It was by far the tallest tree on the Meridian of Misery, and probably the oldest too. Toothless hadn't lived on Berk before he met Hiccup, so he really couldn't be sure, but he knew the thicker a tree trunk, the older the tree, and this tree's trunk was absolutely huge! And that was why it hurt so much to smack into it. Hiccup let out a yell as they fell; why was his dragon falling? Sure, he'd been thinking about other things, but didn't Toothless always recover almost perfectly after a collision? Why wasn't he flapping his wings?

Toothless hadn't smelled it before; the scent of pine and evergreen sap had clogged up his senses, but now that they were falling below the canopy level, it was as clear as day; Dragon scent. And not any dragon HE knew, either. No, this was a special kind of scent. It was the scent of a rival Nightfury. So he fell. No, they wouldn't crash, but he wanted to scare the other Nightfury.

Toothless knew he'd always have a home with Hiccup; if not for friendship, then because Hiccup owed him. He owed Toothless for taking away his ability to fly. But that didn't stop Toothless from being territorial; and this Nightfury was on HIS territory. This island was HIS, it was where his people were, his friends, and he wouldn't let this new Nightfury endanger his friends or his safety. He would chase of the threat, to make absolutely sure Hiccup was safe.

"Toothless! Pull up pull up!" Hiccup howled as they neared the ground. Toothless's wings were folded, to gain maximum falling speed, but as soon as the other Nightfury was in plain sight, he unfurled his wings and soared right over its head. He turned his head to see the reaction, and was actually quite surprised to see the look of shock and horror on the new dragon's face. Hadn't it scented him coming? Or heard Hiccup's screaming? Was it just stupid? Any which way it was, Toothless landed with all four feet on the ground and spun to face the black beast. It was small, it was frightened looking and…it was female. He could tell from just the smell, males always smelled different than females, and this was definantly a female. Strange, but still not good. Females were nothing but trouble; they were nasty, selfish creatures who bullied other innocent males off of their land and brought hordes of annoying little dragonlings with them. This was even worse than a male! A female would make more Nightfuries, and then the island would be full of them! She needed to be gotten rid of right away!

Toothless bared his teeth and let out a ferocious growl. Hiccup was trembling on his back, but kept quiet. Good, Toothless didn't want him to get in the way and get hurt. The female let out a shrill screech and took off running. Whoa, was it that easy? No, Toothless thought, she was probably just going to circle back around. He needed to make sure she was leaving for good. So he burst through the wall of leaves she'd gone through and gave chase.

She was probably the most blunderous Nightfury Toothless had ever seen! Her tail kept smacking against trees and such, and she actually tripped over it a few times! Didn't she realize if she just kept it straight behind her she could run a lot faster? She must be young, he thought.

The female didn't stop running until they both came to the eastern cliffs. "_Yes!" _Toothless yelped, wagging his tail happily, "_She's leaving!"_ But as they got closer to the edge, the female kept her wings folded at her sides. Wasn't she going to fly away? She looked like she was just going to jump. No, that was far too dangerous, she'd get herself killed! Toothless was just trying to figure out what she was doing, when she actually jumped. She jumped right off the cliff! Well, the word here actually would be stumbled; she stumbled off the cliff, but either way's fine. Toothless skidded to a halt and looked over the edge. Drat! It appeared that the female had gotten lucky and found a narrow ledge to grab hold of. She was just puling herself onto the ledge when Toothless let out his loudest, most furious roar. He wanted to get a very simple message across: Stay away from my people!

"Toothless, it's fine! It looks like it can't even fly! It's stuck down there, let's just go home, alright?" Toothless tilted his head to stare at his rider, all anger vanishing from his face.

"_Fine, Hiccup. But only for you."_ He said, and turned back towards home. He couldn't help but notice, though, Hiccup give a backwards glance at the cliff.


	4. Chapter 4: Clumsy Runes

**Chapter Four: Clumsy Runes**

"Here lies the body of Frigma Svenson, who was tragically turned into a….Dagmar?" Frigma howled and started scrabbling at the side of the cliff, scratching out her mistake for the fifth time. "_Writing is so stupidly hard when you try to carve it into a stupid cliff!" _She thought to herself, giving up trying to write her own eulogy and tucking her head under her wing. "_I hate stupid runes. I hate the gods! I hate dragons!" _This was just some sort of cosmic joke to them, wasn't it? Send down the Goddess of love and turn her into a vile, cold-blooded, fire-spitting beast! Her life was officially over now, so she might as well just die. They'd find a pile of dragon bones and this misspelled tombstone, and that would be all that was left of her! Dagmar; she snorted at her own mistake. Of course she couldn't even do a single thing right!

But why had Toothless and Hiccup chased her off? She knew they wouldn't have recognized her; she was a Nightfury for Odin's sake! But, she'd thought Toothless would have been happy to see another Nightfury around! None of the other dragons in the village were quite as playful as Toothless, maybe it was just a Nightfury sort of thing, and she thought he would have seen her as some sort of potential playmate! But no, as soon as those two had laid eyes on her, they'd turned all hostile! It didn't make any sense.

Frigma let out a long, rattling sigh and uncurled her left foot-dragon hand-thing. She didn't know exactly what it was, it was the foot on her front left leg. But wrapped around that foot was a string of faded wooden beads. The string was all that was left after she'd been transformed into this accursed beast; all her other clothes were lying in a pile by the tree, torn up and in pieces. Even her shoes were all mangled! But at least the beads were safe; they were her Mother's. Apparently, her Father had given them to her Mother when they were younger, and the necklace had then been passed down to Frigma. Frigma had always thought that her Father had been too dim-witted to give her Mother ANYTHING (he was a Viking, after all) but it was a nice story, none-the–less. It just felt comforting to hold the last claim she had to a human life.

Frigma slumped on that ledge for hours, trying to figure out what she would do. As much as she felt like doing so at the moment, she doubted she would actually DIE of misery, and, weren't dragons immortal anyway? That was something weird to think about; of course Vikings had killed dragons in the past, there were still trophies of said killings hung around Berk, to the other dragon's apparent dislike. But, if a dragon could avoid being killed by something else, did they actually die? Could dragons get sick? Did they die of old age? Or, do they just continue to live on forever, unchanging? Nobody had ever bothered to test that theory, she guessed, and then shivered at a very depressing thought. What if the dragons who were flying around now where the same dragons that flew in the skies a hundred years ago? Maybe even a thousand years ago! Did that mean Frigma was doomed to be a monster forever?

No, none of that could be true! Dragons laid eggs, she'd seen the brilliant orange eggs Nightmares guarded so carefully, or the bright blue ones Naders carried around in their claws. And animals only reproduced to keep a species alive, and that all meant that dragons had to die at some point! She stopped stressing about the thought of being immortal, though there was still a few nagging thoughts in the back of her mind. She pushed those away and looked at the sun. It was setting at the moment, its rays just touching the horizon, readying itself to dip into the endless ocean.

It was weird, it was the middle of the fall, and any other night it would be right around 10 degrees, at best, but Frigma felt untouched by the cold. She looked at the shiny black scales covering her body. Well, actually, now that she looked, they were more gray than black. "_Great,"_ she thought, _"I'm not even a GOOD Nightfury. I'm not even black!"_ But she snapped back to her previous thoughts as a slight wind picked up and brushed past those things growing out of the top of her head. What were they? Ears? Regardless, the wind would have sent a Viking running indoors, but she felt nothing! Weren't Dragons cold-blooded reptiles, literally? From what little information she could get her hands on in book form as a human, she'd deduced that cold-blooded animals draw heat from their surroundings. So weren't dragons the same? She stood up slightly and stuck her tongue out. Yep, there was definitely a breeze. But she felt warm as a campfire.

As soon as Frigma stood, though, she was assaulted by a loud grumbling noise. Startled, she nearly jumped herself over the cliff again, until she realized the growling was just her stomach. Oh, she was hungry. She hadn't eaten since yesterday at breakfast, and she'd been too depressed all of today to try and find some food, but now she knew she needed it.

"_Why even try?_ She thought dismally. _"If I don't eat, I might die quicker."_ But the whole immortality thing was still bugging her, and she wasn't really brave enough to go on a hunger strike, so she began hauling her now-enormous, and heavy, body back up the side of the cliff. Which was no easy task, mind you! She remotely thought of using her new wings to try and fly back up, but she was not only afraid she might fall, but she knew if she started to fly, she'd except what she'd become, and she just wasn't ready to do that. "_There's still a chance! Freya could come back down and turn me back to a human! Or better yet, I could just wake up from this horrendous nightmare!" _But in the back of her mind, she knew neither would happen. So she continued her slow and arduous climb to the top of the cliff.

**(Page Break)**

Frigma collapsed on the grass. She was exhausted! It had taken entirely too long to get up the side of the cliff! Why was everything so hard as a dragon? It would have taken her twenty minutes, tops, if she were still human! She hugged her necklace to her chest before wrapping it around her front right leg, for safe-keeping.

The sun had set long ago, making her climb even harder, and making her feel utterly and undeniable alone. She didn't like being outside at night, call it instinct, but she felt like something was stalking her. It was silly, of course. She was a Nightfury! Proudest of all dragons! What other dragon would dare attack her? But that was just the problem; there WAS a dragon that would attack her, and would be more than willing to do so. From her experience as a human, she knew almost for fact that Toothless and Hiccup didn't fly at night, too risky and dangerous. But what if they were on some sort of night patrol? What if they'd gone back to the village and told the others to be on watch for another Nightfury? Frigma's eyes darted back and forth, trying to pick up movements in the forest in front of her.

There were a few good things about being a dragon. Her hearing and sight and sense of smell where phenomenal! She could see every detail of almost everything! She smell sulfur and burning wood from the dragons nest just past the village. And she could hear….she could hear the shouts and hollers of Vikings. Berk was still alive, even this late at night, and even from across the island, she could almost pick out their words. It was enough to make her want to howl with fury and sadness, but she knew she couldn't dwell on that thought for long. She had to get something to eat.

And that brought up its own series of challenges! First off, she couldn't just waltz down to the great hall and grab a plate anymore. She actually had to conjure up her own meal, which she was not good at doing. She could barely roast fish! And secondly, what was she going to eat! No vegetables grew on Berk, only fish and meat! Was she going to have to eat RAW meat? She almost gagged at the thought. But her hunger was growing worse by the minute, and as she trudged through the forest, she started picking up the slight rustlings of tiny creatures in the undergrowth, and she started to wonder how they would taste.

"_Maybe, because I'm a dragon, raw meat will taste good!" _It was plausible, and she spied a mouse just about ten feet in front of her, so she thought she'd test out her new theory. She crouched down, like she'd seen cats do to catch mice, and launched herself forward. Here was another good thing about being a dragon; her mind worked so clearly and mechanically now, it was more than easy to calculate just where she was going to land. Her feet landed right on the little mouse, but Frigma was quite disgusted by the shriek it gave as she crushed it. No! She'd killed it! She'd killed it with her own hands! Not like she thought she wouldn't have to, but the fact that she'd used her hands to end another thing's life almost made her not want to eat the mouse. But her stomach once again reminded her that she needed food, NOW, so, thanking the Gods for the mouse's life, she bent her head and took a bite.

"AAARRRGGG!" She shrieked, jumping back and spitting the mouse out. Raw meat was not good, raw meat was NOT good! She shook her head back and forth, trying to rid her mouth of the taste somehow, and hopped around, as if any of that would help. Ugg, she felt the bile rise in her throat, and felt like retching, but couldn't. It wouldn't make her feel any better, only hungrier, so she swallowed the bile back down and covered her head with her hands. Feet. Whatever.

After a few minutes in a fetal position, the taste of the mouse was almost gone, and she got back up. Now what was she going to do? She obviously couldn't eat anything she caught, at least not without cooking it first, and she wasn't going to stoop so low as to chew on grass, but she didn't really have much of a choice. Unless….

**(Page Break)**

Frigma couldn't believe she was doing this. This was pathetic, and wrong, and she knew it. But she _needed_ to eat, or she wouldn't have to question whether she was immortal or not anymore. So there she stood, hidden behind a bush, spying on a few Vikings, guffawing and knee-slapping around a campfire, fish roasting in the flames.

Quizzically, she could understand every word being said by the Vikings. She'd assumed as soon as she'd been turned into a dragon, she'd lost the ability to communicate with humans altogether. And while she couldn't talk anymore, she could listen to THEM talk, and it all made sense.

That didn't matter at the moment though. The only things that mattered were the fish and how she was going to steal the fish.

She bunched up her muscles again, like she was going to pounce on something, and her eyes shifted from Viking to Viking. They were telling each other about their dragons. Good, they were distracted.

What happened next was complete and utter chaos! Frigma leapt from the bushes, aiming for the fish, but just as she was about to land, one of the Vikings threw his arms out wide, as if to exaggerate his story, and accidentally clocked Frigma in the nose. She fell, quite ungracefully, and howled in pain; because, let's face it, even as a dragon, it hurts to be punched in the nose! The Vikings all jumped out of their skins, and started shouting, too, so the whole scene was just one big loud mess! Frigma leapt once again at the fish, and successfully snatched one up, but not before stumbling into the fire and effectively putting it out. She didn't feel any pain because, duh, fire-proof scales! But the light had been extinguished, so as she tried to escape, she kept knocking into the panicking Viking men.

As she scuttled off, she heard one man shout "Hiccup, keep that no-good Nightfury of yours indoors! For Odin's sake and all of ours!" Ahh, so they thought she was Toothless. Well, it was reassuring to know that Hiccup had not blabbed to the whole village about her residence on the island, but knew there was going to be some confusion in the morning when they discovered Toothless had been sleeping at the end of Hiccup's been all night and nowhere near the site of the mishap.

Frigma carried her prize back to the grassy outcrop beside the edge of the cliff to feast. There was nowhere else for her to go, really, except maybe the tree where she'd slept the night earlier. But that place now held unpleasant memories, and she didn't want to go back. So she went to the only other place where she felt even remotely comfortable, and gulped down the fish. It didn't fill her up completely, but it would hold her over until she could think of something else. Or at least until morning. So, her hunger subdued for the moment, she laid her head on her front legs, her necklace tucked under her chin, and fell into an uneasy sleep. And for the second night in a row, she didn't have any dreams.


	5. Chapter 5: Just Too Nice

**Chapter Five: Just Too Nice**

Somehow I always seemed to get myself in these sorts of situations! Maybe it's just in my blood. But then again, my Dad never had these sorts of problems! His biggest worry was whether or not to have the lamb or the fish at dinner. I think my problems were just a tad bit bigger.

It had started out a weird day. Not only was Toothless waaay too agitated that morning, but I was also shouted at by three different people, for something I didn't do! They all said the same thing: "Keep that Nightfury of yours on a shorter leash! He causes enough trouble around here as it is!" I didn't have the slightest clue what any of them were talking about; Toothless was one of the best-behaved dragons on Berk, and what kind of mischief did he even cause? He'd been sleeping at the end of my bed all night! He never leaves the house without me, I can't imagine he snuck out and caused any trouble!

But the strangest part of the day was yet to come. I'd been planning all night what I'd say to Astrid to make her distract Toothless for a few hours, so I could go check up on that Nightfury. Ever since Toothless had chased the poor thing over that cliff the night before, I'd had a bad feeling that there was something wrong with it, like it was hurt or something. And I knew almost definantly that Toothless would NOT show any mercy to the other Nightfury if he saw it again, so I needed to go alone. I finally convinced Astrid that Toothless could help her haul wood up the hill to the house, so we could get started fixing the dragon-induced hole in the wall. Toothless wasn't happy about me going off by myself, but he didn't put up much of a fight; probably because he knew Astrid's wrath would soon ensue if he didn't help her.

And let me tell you, hiking through miles of dense forest with only one good leg is no easy task! Not only did I fall flat on my face several times, but the metal kept sinking in the soft dirt, and a few times I'd almost gotten stuck! I tried to retrace my steps to the big tree where Toothless and I crashed into, but I hadn't been paying attention yesterday when we were flying, and almost got lost! But the top of the tree could be seen, sticking up through the canopy, and, after about two hours of hiking, I finally got there.

It was different than I remembered seeing it the night before. It had been dark the first time I'd seen the place, so I didn't see the shreds of clothes lying around the trunk of the tree. That was odd? Why were they here? Did the dragon….oh no. I limped over to the nearest bit of cloth and stooped to inspect it. Some of it was white cotton, a pretty common material, but there were bits of green knitted wool here and there too. Wool was a precious commodity, since it didn't grow all year long, and there were only a few people in Berk who knew how to dye wool like this. It was dark green, and pretty thick, it had probably been someone's winter clothes. I shivered, and dropped the cloth. Had that dragon…eaten someone? Or maybe it just attacked someone? Nobody had reported being attacked by a wild Nightfury back in the Village. Maybe they were still out in the forest, wounded and hiding!

The trip back was even harder than the trip up to the tree, but I somehow found the strength to get back home. I needed to tell someone about the shredded cloth. We needed to send out a search party! Who-ever had been out there…they might be in trouble!

Of course Toothless was by my side as soon as I stepped foot in the village, looking cross that I'd left him behind and worried that I was so frazzled. I went straight to the Chief's house (well, you can't really limp straight, so it was more like a wiggly zigzag) to tell my father.

"What? Attacked in the forest?" my Dad barked as soon as the words had left my mouth. He was a pretty intimidating person, but underneath all that armor and beard, he did genuinely care about his people, and I could tell he was worried for the sake of the missing person, who-ever they were.

"Yeah, right under that big tree on the eastern side of the island," I filled him in on the details as he stalked out of the house, rounding up his warriors and their dragons. "There were all these little peaces of cotton and wool everywhere, and I think the-" I had to stop myself there. Something inside of me didn't want to tell my Dad about the Nightfury Toothless and I had found. I knew it would help if he knew what kind of dragon he was looking for, but….it was a weird feeling. I just couldn't say it. "-I think one of those wild dragons might have got somebody. You know…" I pulled my thumb across my neck, to which my Father frowned.

"Listen Hiccup, you go around and ask anyone and everyone if they have a friend or family member that hasn't been home recently. I want to know who it is I'm looking for." He pulled on his beard (he did that when he was worried) and started calling to the warriors and shouting directions. I nodded and raced back to my House and Astrid. Okay, I gave myself too much credit; I moved just about as slowly as a turtle up the hill, and Toothless was no help either. He kept racing up ahead of me and whining. He was nervous, even if he didn't know what was going on.

"Hiccup?" Astrid called from inside the house. "Are you finally back? Jeez, gone all day, didn't life a finger to help anyone. Just be grateful I fixed the stupid-"

"Astrid!" I didn't have time for this. She popped her head around the corner, her eyes betraying her shock at the worried tone I'd taken. "Astrid, someone's missing, we don't know who, but there's little bits of cloth all over the forest. I think…I think a wild dragon must have attack somebody!" Her mouth hung open for a moment, before the words seemed to sink in and she jumped out of the other room and rushed past me. "Will you ask around and find out who hasn't come back into town in the past few nights? It's important!"

"Don't worry, Hiccup. I'm on it!" She whirled around and the door and pecked me on the cheek. "Berk's so lucky to have you around." Ooh, so that was why I married that woman. She didn't exactly have a way with words, but when it came right down to it, she was always beside me.

Speaking of things beside me, Toothless nudged my hand just them. He was probably anxious to know what was going on.

"Okay buddy, I have something for us to do. C'mon!" Toothless was like my living crutch (most of the time) and I was sort of like his. He helped my limp outside and I hopped onto his back. "You're _really_ not going to like this, Toothless," I said as I hitched my prosthetic to the stirrup on the side of Toothless's saddle. "But I have to know, and you're just going to have to deal with it!" And with that, we took off in the direction of the cliff we'd visited not a day before.

**(Page Break)**

Toothless let out a growl as we approached the cliff. A large lump of dark scales could be seen through the trees, slowly rising and falling in slumber. It was curled up in a ball, and it's face was turning towards the cliff.

"Easy buddy," I whispered, not wanting to wake and scare the other Nightfury. "Listen, we're not here to hurt it. I just need to know something." Toothless desperately wanted to attack the dragon while it was sleeping, I was sure. I could understand the whole territory thing, but he'd never been this bad around other dragons! Why only with other Nightfuries?

That was pointless to think about at the moment, and I pushed the thoughts aside as I climbed off of Toothless's back.

"Sit. And STAY." I commanded, scratching his nose before tip-toeing towards the Nightfury. I crept out of the shadow of the trees at the edge of the little grassy clearing above the cliff, and noticed that the Nightfury in front of me wasn't actually black. It's scales were gray, and not even a dark gray, either. Must not have noticed it during the night, but this Nightfury wasn't really a _Night_fury. It was more like a….._Dusk_fury. And now that he was able to look from it to Toothless and back, it's was pretty small, too. Not half Toothless's size or anything; maybe just a foot shorter. But that was only an estimate.

Toothless grumbled. I shushed him. This happened a few times as I got closer and closer to the Duskfury. That was just some stupid name I gave it, but it actually started to grow on me after a while! Anyway, I didn't know what I was really looking for, but I just wanted some answers. And boy did I get answers.

Turns out, the Duskfury wasn't really asleep! Who knew it was watching me from under its wing? As soon as I got within an arm's length of it, it raised its head a tad, just so its eyes skimmed over its side to look at me. And what beautiful eyes they were; maybe even more so that Toothless's! They were still green, as most dragon's were, but they were a softer, lighter shade of green, darker around the edges and just around the pupils, and lighter in between. They were just about the same color as sea foam, and they were wider and rounder, too. I mean, compared to Toothless, who had some pretty round eyes himself!

But it wasn't just the color that got to me; it was the look the Duskfury was going me. It's gaze was so focused, so intense, it was almost as if….as if a _person_ were the owner of the eyes. They seemed every bit as intelligent as any of the humans on the Island, maybe even more so, and they were just so big!

I instinctively reached out a hand, probably out of habit because I was just so used to patting Toothless, and two things happened at once. The first was that the Duskfury jumped up and away from my hand, and the second was Toothless leaping forward and letting a snarl rip through his bared teeth. It was really scarred, for some reason, and not just of Toothless. It was scarred of _me_, had jumped away from_ my_ hand. Why would a completely mobile dragon be afraid of a human? We were so weak and appetizing, why wouldn't it instinctively jump to kill me?

Well, besides that, I got what I was looking for. From spending so much time with dragons, we Vikings have learned that A) Dragons take great pride in what they kill and B) if ever possible, Dragons like to keep trophies, just like we do. And there was its trophy, wrapped around the left foreleg of the Duskfury; a simple, faded wooden beaded necklace. A necklace, I knew, belonged to the only deaf resident in Berk, Frigma Svenson.


	6. Chapter 6: Not so Cute

**This is turning out waaay cheesier than I thought it would! Oh well!**

**There was some confusion about this story in earlier chapter so let me clear this up: I had mismarked it as 'complete' when it's really still 'in progress'! It's not over yet, there's still A LOT more to come! Sort about the misunderstanding!**

**Chapter Six: Not So Cute**

What was Hiccup staring at? Frigma was the one who should be staring! Out of nowhere, the two people on the entire Island that she would LEAST like to see at that moment just happened to show up! This was just great! Why where they here, anyway? Frigma looked from Toothless to Hiccup and back, trying to decipher what was going through their heads just from their expressions. Well, it was pretty easy to guess what Toothless was thinking: "As soon as Hiccup turns away, I'm running this dragon right off the cliff!" She'd never seen such a fierce look in a dragon's eye, not even from the dragons that used to terrorize the village! But Hiccup was a little harder to understand. His expression kept swinging from curiosity to terror, with a little confusion thrown in here and there.

Frigma stood with her back to the cliff, and her back arched, which she didn't exactly know if that was something dragons did, but she'd seen cats do it before, and Nightfuries were pretty cat-like. She really was just trying to seem bigger than she was. It wasn't a secret, and she wasn't an idiot; she was pretty small compared to Toothless. Probably because she was just a girl (as much as Viking women hate to admit it, few rarely grow to the size of a man and are therefore substantially weaker in battle. Viking men of course never said this out loud; otherwise there wouldn't BE any Viking men!) or maybe it had to do with her not actually being born a dragon. Whatever the reason, she was dishearted to realize she was starting to think just like an animal!

"_What am I DOING!"_ She thought, forcing her back to straighten out. "_I'm NOT a Nightfury! However I may look on the outside, my mind is still human! I can't let that go…if I stop thinking like a human…then…then…"_ She didn't want to think about it! She wouldn't be this hideous beast for long, and when she was turned back into a human, whenever that would be, she wanted to keep her wits about her!

Both Hiccup and Toothless reacted in different ways to her show of non-hostility. Hiccup, being the idiot he was and always would be, started to pace forward, his arm outstretched like a goon. Honestly, that boy had no sense at all! Did he really think I was going to let him pat me on the head and take me back to the village? I was NOT going to become another one of his little pets! Toothless, on the other hand, dropped his hackles and his grimace lessened a bit. His ears were still up (or whatever those things on his head were; I still couldn't figure it out, even when identical structures were on my own head!) but his eyes looked a little less fierce.

"Don't worry," Hiccup said as he got closer. "I'm not going to hurt you." "_Yeah, right. What could you possibly want with me?"_ Frigma thought sarcastically, stepping back a step for every step Hiccup advanced. It wasn't so much that she thought Hiccup would hurt her but…..okay, she knew this was impossible, but for some reason she kept thinking that if he touched her, he'd realize she was Frigma, and that would be utterly mortifying! She would never ever live it down; she would be Frigma the dragon-girl, cursed by the Gods! Who wants that, on top of the already-existing torture she had to endure her whole life! "I just want to-" But by that time, Frigma had backed-up all the way to the cliff's edge, and her back right leg slipped a bit over the edge. Looking back behind her, she knew she probably wouldn't land on the ledge again if she jumped, and there was no way she could fly (how would she even know how?) So, she did something very stupid and very un-human-like.

As soon as Frigma let out her loudest roar, she knew it was a mistake. Hiccup fell down backwards, more from shock than from fright, but it was enough to make Toothless jump back into his previous vicious self, propelling into Frigma at full force and knocking her backwards over the cliff. "_Why am I such an imbecile!" _She screamed in her head as both dragons fell through the air towards the angry ocean below. Toothless was taking half-crazed swipes at her face, his claws barely just missing her eyes. But Frigma didn't even notice when Toothless bit down on her leg and rolled, wrenching it painfully out of place; the approaching surf was capturing her immediate attention.

Her wings were virtually useless anyway, so she didn't even bother extending them, but as the water got ever closer, Toothless seemed to understand what he'd done, and was flapping madly, trying to save himself. He knew as well as Frigma that the chances of surviving under the water while being pummeled by the waves against the cliff side were very slim, and as a last ditch effort to spare himself from death, he used Frigma's underside as a launch pad and pushed off towards the rock face, clinging to the cliff and scrambling to climb up and away from the water. This was all fine for him, but for Frigma, his use of her as a springboard just increased her velocity, and she hit the water all that much harder. She actually heard the slap before she felt it, but once she did feel it, it was all she could think about!

"_It stings it stings it stings it stings!" _she kept repeating in her head as she was dragged under the water. _"OOOUCH! It stings SOOO BAD!"_ It wasn't until she was slammed against the rocks under the water that she was snapped out of it. It was then that she realized the severity of her situation. Paddling in a blind fury, she tried desperately to get to the surface. "_Just a lungful of air, that's all I need, and then I can think of a way out of this mess!"_ But a lungful of air was something she didn't get right away.

You see, dragons were heavy. Anyone of the Vikings in Berk could tell you that dragon tend to weigh several hundred pounds, some in the tons, and while Nightfuries aren't the heaviest of the winged reptiles, they were certainly heavy in and of themselves! It was hard, especially with a twisted leg, to paddle in the right direction, and Frigma actually almost paddled downwards in her panic and confusion. But one thing she kept clear in her mind: Don't let go of the necklace! It kept getting tugged away from her, and every time she opened her mouth to try and grab it again, more and more water rushed in and threatened to choke her. It kept sinking, and when she finally was able to catch it on her tail (which she still didn't have complete control of) she was almost past-out from lack of oxygen.

Her vision was just about to fuzz out, when something snagged on the back of her neck. No, not snagged, something had GRABBED the back of her neck. It was teeth. And teeth were usually attached to a mouth, which was usually attached to a head, and a body. Something was saving her! Or, trying to, at least. It couldn't drag her to safety, but it did get her to the surface, where she gasped and sputtered and spit out about a gallon of water. What had saved her? She was almost disappointed to see Hiccup and Toothless, circling in the sky above her. Dang, he'd made it. Frigma was really starting to hate that dragon.

**(Page Break)**

Frigma sat on the far side of the pebbly beach, as far from Hiccup and Toothless as possible. She would have been a fool to try and climb back up to her grassy clearing at the top of the cliff, and for now was stranded with her least favorite dragon-rider duo on the Island. Toothless was sitting behind Hiccup, keeping a constant growl up, looking like he wished to bore holes into Frigma's hide with his eyes. Hiccup kept standing up and walking a few steps, before sitting back down again.

She let out a sigh and stared into the distance. Her back was to the boy and his dragon, but she didn't care what they did anymore; she just wanted to go home! She wanted to go back to her parents house and have her Mother pat her hair down and rock her to sleep, like she used to do when Frigma was a child! She wanted to sleep in a bed, she wanted to eat in the Great Hall, REAL food, too! And she didn't want to be scarred at night; she wanted to sleep under a roof and not have to worry about what might jump out of the forest to get her! She wanted to be herself again!

This was all Hiccup's and Toothless's faults! She knew it was wrong to blame them; they really were (almost) innocent, but she needed somebody REAL to blame, somebody PRESENT. And they really were nothing but trouble; she'd been fine until they had come along! Sleeping (though not dreaming) and relaxed for the first time since becoming a stupid dragon! But no, everything just had to happen to Frigma! She was really starting to believe that the Gods hated her; they were all probably sitting in Asgard, laughing at her and thinking up new ways to humiliate and hurt her! This wasn't her fault! It was all her stupid dad's fault! He was the one who sinned, not her! Why was everything so unfair?

Frigma had just about lulled herself into sleep with her wishes to become human again, when she felt a slight pressure on her neck, below her ear (things). Her head whipped back up to see Hiccup staring at her, a little surprised, but determined, his hand resting on her scales. She must have not heard him walk up while she was thinking to herself! She would have jumped up and tried to run away at any other time (she was still mortified to have anyone she knew see her like this, even if they didn't recognize her) but she was simply too tired, and, against her better judgment, she let her head drop back onto her forelegs. She closed her eyes to half-moons and let out a soft-grumble, but otherwise didn't move.

Hiccup must have taken that as his cure to sit down next to her and start yabbering his little head off. Frigma had been a little more irritated than usual lately (maybe it was the dragon blood?) and this annoyed her a lot, but she didn't want to spark a reaction from the already on-edge Toothless, so she just tried to shut her ears to Hiccup's nonsense and try, to no use, to fall asleep.

"I've never seen a Duskfury like you before," he commented while scratching behind her ears. The scratching part she actually enjoyed (apparently dragons had a soft-spot for anyone who would scratch their ears) but the 'Dusk'fury part she did not.

"Dusk_fury? _She thought, twitching her ear. "_Could he get any lamer?"_ She grumbled out loud slightly, and Hiccup started to laugh.

"Wow, even Dragons think I'm weird!" he said. "Don't you like the name? It's kind of cute, I thought. You know, instead of _Night_fury, you're a _Dusk_fury, because your scales aren't black! It's brilliant!" "_Rub salt in fresh wounds, why don't you?" _Frigma grouched. "_It's not cute at all!"_


	7. Chapter 7: Sneaky Indeed

**Haha, this is the chapter where things start making sense again! It's also a very very very short chapter! I actually intended to make it part of chapter six, but I thought it would be funnier if it was read from Toothless's POV**

**Chapter Seven: Sneaky Indeed**

There was absolutely no denying it; my Rider was sneaky indeed! Oh ho ho, how I would love to see that female's face when she wakes up and sees her precious trophy missing! Hiccup has some pretty sticky fingers, I'll tell you that! Taking that necklace from the female Nightfury as she slept! That'll teach her to stay away from me and my best friend; we don't need any other dragons! I'm the best in Berk, and Hiccup knows that!

Though, I know I'D be pretty peeved if someone stole something of mine. I don't have much to have stolen from me, but, if my saddle went missing, I'd go into a rage trying to find it again! But that's just because I can't fly without it. But it still does worry me that the female might get angry and come looking for her trophy.

Serves her right, though! I can't feel pity for that mongrel dragon; how can she call herself a Nightfury! She's a dingy gray color, and so small I could crush her with one foot if I tried! I could crush ANYONE with one foot if I tried. I'm a TRUE Nightfury, and nobody tries to one-up me in anything!

Poor Frigma. I barely knew the girl, and there seemed to be something wrong with the girl, so I never really thought she'd survive long, but to be eaten by such a puny dragon? It's pitiable, for sure; she was nice and liked to give me lambs meat when nobody was looking. I'll miss her. But I'll miss that lambs meat even more.

I sort of understand why Hiccup took the necklace. I know he needs it to prove that it was Frigma that was the one who had been killed, but I didn't understand how it would prove that the female Nightfury did it. Did he even want to prove the female Nightfury did it? He seemed pretty chummy with her back at the beach; I don't like it when he's chummy with other dragons. I'M his dragon. I'M the one who looks out for him all the time! If not for me, he might have been the female's second victim! I'm so brave, fighting off the stupid female for him! I'm practically a hero!

But when Hiccup took it back to his house instead of turning the necklace in; well, that was just downright stupid! What good was the necklace going to do sitting on a dresser? No good, that's what! He just set it down and went to find Astrid! Well, whatever. I knew he would only do that for some reason, some really important reason, but, sometimes, I just don't understand that boy.

But what I do understand is this. Hiccup is definantly, without a doubt, undeniable sneaky.


	8. Chapter 8: All good Things

**Okay, I lied! Chapter seven didn't exactly explain much, and I'm afraid this one won't either! This is just a fluff chapter, where we get to go into some character depth with…dun dun dun! Astrid! Yay!**

**Chapter Eight: All Good Things**

Frigma finally dreamt while she slept that night! And it was a good one, too! In her dream, she was human again, but she could still hear just fine. She had been walking through Berk, waving at everyone she saw, and everyone, in turn, smiled and waved and said hello! And not a rude face in sight! It was a perfect dream, and she was really sorry she had to wake up.

But all good things must come to an end, and the sun shining directly in her eyes (coupled with the fact that the tide had come in and was now drenching her) woke her late in the morning. She stretched (which was so much more easy to do now that she was so flexible) and immediately knew something was wrong. Where was Hiccup and Toothless? Had they left? How long had Frigma been sleeping? She looked up at the sun and realized it must have been around Noon! She'd slept the entire night and half of the next day! Not only where they gone, but they had probably told the entire village by now of her existence! Just what she needed.

She began tromping through the forest, to her usual resting spot up on the cliff (though now she was starting to think that wasn't such a good place to be any more) and it wasn't until she stubbed her foot on a root and looked down at her leg did she notice that her necklace was missing.

Those thieves! Those no-good dirty-rotten thieves! They had taken her necklace! Her last claim to every being human! Now there was nothing for her to gaze at hopefully when she was feeling depressed! Who steals from the needy!

She calmed herself down by telling herself she probably just dropped it in the sand at the beach. She had definitely come out of the water with it; she remembered re-wrapping it around her foot on the beach! It must have slipped off while she was sleeping, yeah, that was it! It was still there, it was still there! It had to be!

She raced back to the shore and bounded right up to the indent in the pebbly sand where she'd slept and searched around for the beads, but they were nowhere in sight. She even dug around in the sand for them, hoping they'd been mooshed down and where just hiding, but they weren't buried either. They weren't there! And that left her with her previous accusation.

"_I'm going to run these claws through Hiccup when I catch that boy!"_ She thought maliciously as she started kicking the sand around. "_He's going to regret the day he stole from Frigma the Nightfu-"_ She paused, catching herself before she finished that sentence. No, NO! Frigma the human! She was definantly Frigma the human! Nightfury, what was she thinking! You were only a Nightfury if you were BORN a Nightfury! Certainly that had to be true! Didn't it?

What had Hiccup called her? A Duskfury? Well, that certainly seemed to fit her coloration, but, deep down, Frigma knew it also held another meaning. Not a human from the day, not a dragon of the night, cursed to walk the dusk forever. She truly was a Duskfury. No, that wasn't right either! Someday, somehow, she'd track down Freya and MAKE her change her back! She was a human, dammit! A Human!

Frigma continued to kick the sand around in anger and frustration for several more minutes, completely unaware that she was being watched.

Astrid let out a short gasp as her eyes focused on what Hiccup was showing her. There, in front of her, was another Nightfury! Not Toothless, clearly not Toothless, for more than one reason, but an actual wild Nightfury! Her hands flew up to her mouth and her eyes were just about as wide as a Nightmare's egg. Hiccup chuckled at her reaction. He had brought her out here to show her that he wasn't crazy! He'd told her the Night before that he'd found a wild Nightfury, but she hadn't believed him. Well, she was eating her words now!

"Hiccup, this is-"She started to say, before Hiccup nudged her in the ribs and held a finger up to his lips.

"Shhhh," He whispered, shaking his head. He didn't want it to see them just yet; he knew it was probably mad at finding its trophy gone. He didn't want to believe that the Nightfury had eaten Frigma, so he'd taken the necklace, so if any other Vikings found the Nightfury, they wouldn't see the necklace and jump to conclusions.

Toothless, though, had different plans. He was tired of sitting still and watching the Female kick sand around. He barged right out of the bushes, drawing shouts from Hiccup and Astrid, and strode over to the Female.

Frigma's head whipped up as Toothless approached. Speak of the devil, and the devil shall appear! She let out a growl and narrowed her eyes, but Toothless wasn't intimidated. He narrowed his eyes right back and sat down. The nerve of that dragon!

"_He thinks he can just stroll on over and blatantly disregard me!" _She thought furiously. She was about to pounce on Toothless, she was itching to claw at his smug little face, but unfortunately, as Astrid often does, the blonde girl got in the way. Just before Frigma leapt, she rushed out and stood between the two dragons. Great, now Frigma HAD to back down. How could she hurt Astrid without causing both Hiccup and Toothless to pursue her with their unjust hatred? She let out a sigh and sat on her haunches. Her ears drooped a bit.

"Stop it!" She shouted, one hand on Toothless's head (he now wore a look of triumph, as if to say 'Go on, just try it! See what happens!') the other on the axe hanging from her belt. It's blade was glinting in the noon-time sun, and Frigma knew she'd have no chance against that thing. She'd seen Astrid with an Axe; the girl never missed her mark.

"Astrid, what do you think you're doing!" Hiccup called from his hiding place. "Do you WANT to die, woman!" Astrid looked hurt, and shouted back: "Don't you care if Toothless is attacked?" Frigma eyed Hiccup, mentally hoping he didn't say what she knew he was really going to say.

"That Nightfury couldn't hurt Toothless if it tried!"

**(Page Break)**

How was that Duskfury so smart! Hiccup limped as fast as he could, which wasn't all that fast, away from the beach. Astrid was just behind him, throwing both curses and her axe at the spot where both Nightfuries were wrestling in the sand. What he'd said wasn't exactly nice, but how did the Duskfury understand him! Toothless hardly ever understood anything he said, unless it had to do with food! Was this dragon really that smart!

Frigma hated this. She hated fighting! It wasn't in her real nature to fight; she liked picking freaking flowers for Gods sakes! But all this dragon-blood in her veins made her angry all the time, it was so….infuriating! She was never happy anymore, and no matter how hard she told her body not to, she just couldn't help picking a fight!

This was ridiculous! Why did she think she could take on Toothless? Not only was he born KNOWING HOW TO FIGHT, but he was way bigger than her! Talk about idiots, Frigma was the pinnacle of stupidity!

She wiggled out of Toothless's grip and took a swipe at his nose, only to miss and run her claws through thin air. Toothless's tail came around at blistering speed and collided with the side of her head at full force, causing her to stagger sideways and stumble in the sand. Toothless took the opportunity to pin Frigma to the group and bite down on her ear. Not only did this hurt, but it brought up a new kind of rage in Frigma. How DARE this arrogant son-of-a-Sea dragon bite her ear! The ear that she had traded her life away for! That was her only comfort these days, being able to hear, and now he was threatening to take that away! He would NOT get away with that, and she would make SURE he'd pay for that.

She kicked her hind legs into Toothless's stomach, causing him to release her ear from his jaws and fall to the left. Using her tail, she smacked his face full on and leapt back up to her feet. Toothless was just climbing back to his feet when Frigma launched herself through the air and collided with him, sending him spinning and scuffling in the sand. It was satisfying to hear his whine of frustration, but she knew when to quit. She wasn't going to push her luck here; and so she ran. Her day was ruined, she was hungry, and now she had a bleeding ear to tend to, but she knew she had fought off Toothless's attack. And even if her shoulder still hurt like crazy and Toothless hated her even more now, she convinced herself that it was okay. For now. But she wouldn't let Toothless forget any of it. She wasn't done with him yet.

**(Page Break)**

Hiccup sat on the bed, his prosthetic leg lying on the floor next to his real foot. It was really killing him, and running for your life through the forest hadn't helped any. But even if, every time he saw the Duskfury, it seemed to threaten his life, he didn't believe it had attacked Frigma. It seemed angry, that was for sure. But murderous? Dragons just didn't do that, not since the Queen had died. No, the Duskfury was not to blame! And that was why nobody could every find out about the little string of faded wooden beads, hiding in his dresser.

Toothless let out his customary bark as he entered the room, ears flat against his head. He was still peeved about the attack brought on by the Female. She had no right to threaten his people! How dare she challenge him! How dare she almost beat him in battle! The coward had run away, though, so it wasn't a complete loss. Hiccup laughed as he saw his friend's expression.

"I see you're still pouting about the scuffle!" Hiccup said, patting Toothless's head. Toothless just grumbled and sat down by Hiccup's legs. "Don't worry, you would have beaten it!"

"_When are you ganna get rid of it?"_ Toothless thought. "_I'm so tired of that female!"_


	9. Chapter 9: Nostalgia

**Oh man, I just re-read a few of the previous chapters, and realized I kept swinging from third-person to first person in the same paragraphs! That is the LAST time I write at night! Holy crap, that's so embarrassing! I'm sorry for the confusion! Don't think I'ma bad writer because of that, just a lazy one!**

**Ugg, I'm so ashamed!**

**Chapter Nine: Nostalgia**

Frigma patrolled the edge of the village one last time. There had to be SOMEBODY cooking fish! Anybody? Her insides felt like they were digesting themselves, she was so hungry! She'd already looped around Berk several times, but by the time the sun had set, she hadn't found one scrap of food. Nobody was cooking open air tonight, and Frigma was NOT going to eat anything raw again! Ugg, just thinking about that mouse she'd tried made her stomach churn. There had to be something else to eat around here!

Against her better judgment, Frigma decided she'd try one of the houses. She picked one she didn't recognize (she was still afraid to confront anyone else she'd known as a human) and, careful to stick to the shadows, crept right up to the side of it. She'd never seen a house from the angle she stood at now; it was a lot bigger when you were condemned to walk on all fours. The windows were a lot higher up, too, and she had to stand on her hind legs, with her front ones resting against the pane, to see inside. It was dark in the house, though, and looked like nobody had ever lived there. There were a few pieces of dusty furniture inside, but nothing else. The fire pit in the middle didn't even have any kindling in it.

"_Rats!" _She thought, remembering the giant construction project that Stoick had overseen that past spring. "_This is still standing empty! Why hasn't anyone moved in yet!"_ Cursing her bad luck (ironic, since her whole life seemed to be bad luck these days) she scuttled off to try the next house.

The next one seemed vaguely familiar. Frigma slithered along in the dying grass, keeping her wings and tail down. It wasn't until voices inside started to shout that she realized who the house belonged to.

"Get out of my room!" Ruffnut shouted, her voice cracking in the middle of the sentence. There was a loud thump, followed by some rude cackling.

"You missed, Blond-wad!" Tuffnut replied with a snicker.

"You're the blond-wad!"

"Hey! Get off! You're really asking for it, Ruff!" More thumps. Frigma lifted an ear to listen better. Her whole life, she'd known the twins didn't get along, but it was so amusing to finally hear one of their famed arguments! And their voices were so….unique! Ruffnut's was low and gravely, and her brother's was naisly and higher-pitched. Frigma hadn't realized that voices came in so many different styles!

"I said, Get OUT of MY ROOM!" It was Ruffnut again, this time raising both her volume and pitch.

"It's my room too, Frizz-face!" There was a shocked gasp after Tuffnut's retort.

"How DARE you! Take it back!"

"No, no, it's true! I'm actually sort of jealous; I couldn't grow a beard like that if I tried!" Even Frigma had to admit; that was a low blow. There was no hesitation from Ruffnut, after one quick shout from her twin and one final gigantic thud that reverberated through the wood in the house, Tuffnut was silent and Frigma could hear Ruffnut muttering under her breath and a slammed door.

She let out a laugh, which sounded more like a hiss through her teeth. Even if this wretched body had caused her so much pain, it really was a blessing to be able to hear! That exchange wouldn't have even hit Frigma's radar if she was deaf! Forgetting that she'd wanted to steal food from the Twin's house (She wasn't fond of the idea of facing Ruffnut) she crept along to the next house.

This house was a little bigger, and raised off the ground, too. It had a little porch-like landing outside the front door, with three rickety stairs leading up. This house was all too familiar; she'd seem her Tormentor leave and enter this house many times. She wrinkled her nose at the thought of going into Snotlout's house to look for food, but at this point, she was so ravenous, she would have even faced Toothless for something to eat.

Frigma sniffed the air. She couldn't tell if anyone was in the house, but she could smell something interesting. It smelled rather food-like, but it wasn't fish. It wasn't any kind of meat she recognized, in fact, and she tried to wrack her brain for memories of this particular smell. Everything in her mind regarding food these days was revolved around a single item: fish. It was hard to remember what ANY other kind of food tasted like now that she was a dragon. But the smell was too good to pass up. She had to investigate.

The windows on Snotlout's house were too high up for Frigma to see into. Well, probably not TOO high, but she risked the possibility of being seen if she were to stretch up to look in the windows, or the possibility of being heard if she climbed up the wall. But the door on the porch was slightly ajar, and she saw that as her best way in. But as she approached the little landing, there was a few loud stomping noises inside and the door was swung open. She darted under the little porch just in time; light from inside flooded onto the ground where she'd just been standing. Frigma looked up through the slats in the wood at saw Snotlout, face grim-as-ever, as he stomped off to do whatever it was he was doing. She didn't care.

As soon as the boy was out of sight, she peeked out from under the porch. The door was still slightly ajar, so she deemed it safe to look inside.

Frigma set one foot in the door, and realized what she had smelled before was not food. Or not exactly food. There was nobody else in the house, and on the far wall of the main room, hung a rather new-looking piece of leather, drying on a rack. Snotlout must have just tanned it, Frigma thought to herself. She took a few more steps inside, making sure not to upset anything around her. Her wings were so boisterous, she hated when they inadvertently knocked into things! But she made it up to the leather without incident, and gave it a good sniff. Well, it wasn't food. But technically, it WAS cooked. And, she had to face it, it was better than eating anything she could have caught. Definantly better than a mouse!

Was she really going to do this? Break into her enemy's house, steal something of his, and on top of it all, eat leather? She knew first-hand how hard it was to tan leather; her Mother had had her do it during the fall so they could have leather during the winter. It was an extremely arduous task, and it took a lot of skill to get a piece of hide looking as good as Snotlout had gotten it to. He WAS good with his hands, if nothing else.

But just the fact that it was Snotlout made Frigma's blood boil. He'd made her life a living Hell! It WAS his fault she was like this! An eye for an eye, she thought darkly. If he hadn't insulted her that day, she never would have run off into the woods, and Freya never would have cursed her like this! This was going to be his payment!

A loud crack issued throughout the village, and Frigma let out a very high-pitched yelp. It took a few moments to realize it was just thunder and Lightning, and not Snotlout, finding her tugging down the leather from the rack. But what she didn't realize was that Thunder and Lightning always came with something else: rain.

Frigma leapt through the door, her make-shift meal clamped between her jaws, and sprinted away from Snotlout's home. She wanted to put a great deal of distance between herself and him when he found out what she had stolen. But the rain dripped into her eyes and made her vision blurry. And it wasn't just a light drizzle; no, as soon as the first drop hit her nose, she knew that it was going to be a downpour. If she looked behind her, she couldn't even see her own tail through the driving rain! Her feet didn't stop moving, though, they seemed to have a mind of their own! And soon, they carried her off into the forest, where she found a tree that some-what shaded her from the downpour.

Frigma chewed the leather, hating the salty taste, under her leafy umbrella. She watched as one-by-one, the tiny sparkling lights from the Village blotted out. Everyone was returning home and going to bed. She didn't blame them. Frigma wished she could go home too. She thought about how her Mother was feeling as she munched the tanned hide. She hoped she hadn't even noticed she was missing, though she knew she had. She didn't was her Mother to worry; she had enough on her plate as it was.

But as all the lights went out, there was still one visible through the veil of the rain. Frigma lifted her head a bit to see better, and realized with a start, that it was indeed her Mother's house! Was Bjanca still awake? What was she doing? Why hadn't she shut herself in for the night like the others? Frigma stared down at her unappetizing prize as these questions ran through her head. But the biggest and most important question of all made her wish she could still cry: Should she go and see her Mother?

**(Page Break)**

Frigma sat outside the little house she'd once shared with her Mother Bjanca. She'd only half-finished her 'dinner', but she knew she couldn't eat another bite. Now, where hunger had once been, was just a giant, numb hole. Frigma wanted to howl and cry and throw open the door and fall into her Mother's arms and be safe and normal again! She wished with her whole heart things would be back to the way that they had been, but wishing did her nothing. She was still a sopping wet dragon, sitting broken-heartedly outside Bjanca Svenson's house.

Taking a deep breath, she hoisted herself up onto her feet and pattered up to the window. The house was low to the ground, and Frigma didn't even have to take her front feet off the ground to see inside.

It was a small house, with only three rooms: a front-room that served as a sitting room AND the hearth, and two small bedrooms off to the back. But there in the sitting room, right in front of Frigma's eyes, was Bjanca. She was sitting in a little chair, her grey-ing hair frizzed up in its braid. She held a small book in her hands, and her eyes kept straying from its pages to look wildly around the room. The whole scene was illuminated by two candles; one on the little table next to Bjanca's chair, and one on a shelf between the two bedroom doors. Everything looked just like Frigma had left it.

Bjanca looked older, though. Much older! It appeared that she had aged dramatically in the three days Frigma had been gone! And now that Frigma looked harder, there seemed to be worry lines above her forehead! Great, she WAS worried!

Well, why wouldn't she be? Her only daughter, who was deaf and terrified of dragons, was now missing! Frigma felt so bad for causing her Mother pain! And just look at her eyes! They were glazed over; looking but not seeing anything. They had always been the same light green Frigma's were, but now they just seemed glassy. Frigma wondered if her own eyes were still the sea-foam green she had left them as a human.

Frigma sat watching her Mother shift in her chair and dart her eyes back and forth for about an hour, never once growing bored. She wanted to drink it all in; she felt almost as though she was right there with her Mother. The cold didn't reach her, the uncomfortable sensation of the rain didn't reach her, the crack of thunder and the flash of lightning didn't reach her. All that mattered was the old woman inside the house and the lost and scared dragon outside.

But after a while, Bjanca seemed to realize how late it was, and went to blow out the candles. Frigma was disappointed as she retreated into her back room to sleep, and figured she'd better do the same. So, with a heavy heart, she trudged through the sodden town, splattering mud all over her scales as she went, not knowing where she was going, and not really caring. She was numb.


	10. Chapter 10: Caught

**Chapter Ten: Caught**

Not loving the idea of sleeping out in the pouring rain, Frigma tried out several different places in the village to try and find some shelter from the downpour. There was always the option of curling up under the little porch at Snotlout's house, but she rejected that almost as quickly as she'd rejected the idea of eating raw meat. There was no way she was going to risk her life for a little shelter! What if Snotlout's Nightmare found her there? If Frigma couldn't even fight Toothless, how was she going to survive against Fireworm? No, that option was out.

There WERE some shallow caves down by the docks, but from past experiences, Frigma had learned that those caves tended to flood when the tides came in. The tides were currently out, but she didn't want to take that chance. That was out too.

She could try and sneak her way into somebody's shed somewhere. That might work! But just as she was about to turn around and look for so said shed, her eye caught on the house she had tried earlier for food; the empty house that had been constructed last spring. Earlier, she had cursed Stoick for not filling the house with people and food, but now she silently thanked him; it was the perfect place to spend a night! Abandoning her shed plan, she raced up to the dark house and gave it a thorough sniff.

There wasn't even a trace of human scent on it; probably hadn't been touched since it had been built! And thank-goodness for it, just as Frigma pushed open the door with her front feet, there was another loud boom, followed by a crack of lightning and the rain seemed to double.

She shook herself from head to tail, trying to dry herself off. It wasn't so much that she was cold; but more because it was just plain uncomfortable to be sopping wet! Especially with scales, the water made them all slippery and slick, and made it hard for her to walk without slipping. But inside, the drumming of the rain was muffled, and the air was very still and warm.

Frigma's mind was so exhausted by the time she curled herself up into a ball in one corner of the front room. Laying her head on her front legs and curling her wings around her, she barely had any time to think about what she would do in the morning before she was out like a candle. But even if she wasn't worrying about it at the moment, the fact still remained: When morning came, chaos would ensue.

Frigma dreamed again that night. She dreamed of vegetables, and chicken with seasoning, and she dreamed she was sitting in the great hall, her plate full of all her favorite foods, resting on the table in front of her. She couldn't even remember what potatoes tasted like, and was just about to dig in, when somebody behind her screamed. She whipped her head around to see who had done it and for why, and found that it was Astrid! She was standing about ten feet away, her face glazed over with horror, and pointing right at Frigma. Beside her stood Hiccup, his face almost an exact copy of hers, with Toothless baring his fangs to their left.

Frigma couldn't understand what they were so afraid of, until her tail swished out from behind her and gave her away. She wasn't a human this time; she was still a Nightfury. Astrid let out another scream as Frigma bolted past them out the giant decorated doors. She needed to get out of there! Why had she been there? She booked it all the way to the edge of the village, Toothless right behind her, snarling and beating his wings. But as soon as she reached the forest, her path was blocked by another Nightfury! It looked exactly like Toothless, right down to the green eyes and the broken tail fin! She tried to swerve around it and run away to its left, but there stood yet ANOTHER Toothless replica, and to THIS one's left was ANOTHER Toothless! There were so many Toothless's! There were too many to count, and after running in a complete circle, Frigma found herself surrounded.

The dream ended with the Toothless's getting ready to pounce, and Frigma sat straight up. If she'd still been human, she probably would have been covered in sweat, but dragons didn't sweat. No, she was just trembling from head to tail, and she felt very cold inside. Her last dream had been so pleasant, but this dream….it hit a little too close to home.

Frigma didn't have time to dwell on these thoughts, though. She raised her head, and noticed that the sun was shining in through the window. Oh, no! She'd slept too late, and now everyone in Berk was sure to be awake! She smacked herself in the head with her tail; how could she be so stupid! Now she'd have to wait until night time to try and escape!

"_I have the worst foresight of anyone I've ever met,"_ she thought dismally. At least the rain had passed.

**(Page Break)**

"Toothless, what is WRONG with you this morning?" Frigma's eyes darted to the window as she saw the top of Hiccup's head pass in front of it. She was sitting in the rafters of the house, and had been for a long time. She had thought she'd just be safe to stay in the house, but even there were no candles inside, it was light enough outside for people to see in, and the rafters were the only safe place at the moment to be! But now it seemed as if Toothless was leading Hiccup right into the house!

"_Stay back, you scaly serpent!"_ she thought, willing them both to turn around. Once they opened the door, Toothless would sniff her out, and she'd be trapped! The front door was the only way out, besides the windows, and she didn't think busting through glass with her head would be a very smart idea. If they blocked the front door, she wouldn't have a way out!

"All right, okay? I'm going I'm going! Jeez, what's so important about this empty house, huh? I DO have work to do!" "_No no no no no!" _she screamed in her head. They were coming in! What was she going to do!

Right then and there, as the door was being pushed open by a dopey Hiccup and an evil Toothless, Frigma concocted the flimsiest plan she'd ever thought up. It was so stupidly dangerous, only a trapped and half-starved dragon would even dream of putting it into action; and unfortunately, Frigma was that dragon.

"Toothless, what in Odin's name are you doing? This is an empty house! Nobody's here." Hiccup popped his head through the doorway, and Toothless shoved his way through, his nose in the air and his eyes glowing. It was now or never, and Frigma flew into action. She wished 'flew' wasn't the right word to use, but it was so appropriate, she almost laughed.

Stretching her wings out to their full extend, Frigma launched off of the support beam she'd been roosting on and made for the door. She'd never flown before, never even tried to use her wings, and flapping was a lot harder than she'd imagined! Her wings were like a whole nother set of arms, but with a more limited range of motion, and it was hard to coordinate them to flap together. Somehow, she managed to break out of the house, ruining it's interior and scaring the daylights out of Hiccup and Toothless, but once she was in the open air, flying became ten times worse.

Not only was there more wind, but all the noise going on around her from the Vikings going about their day really threw off her sense of direction, and she couldn't keep to a straight line. And on top of all that, her body was so heavy, she didn't think she'd be able to keep it aloft with her wings! They felt so tiny! Really, they were probably very big, but she'd never seen them with her own eyes, and couldn't tell.

What had she been thinking? This was going terribly! Why was she still attempting to fly? Dropping ungracefully to the muddy ground, Frigma broke out in a sprint. She didn't know if anyone had seen her or was following her, but she didn't care!

"_Gatta get outta here, gatta get outta here!"_ she chanted to herself as she ran. Most people who saw here probably thought she was Toothless, and was why they weren't making a fuss about her appearance, but as soon as Toothless gave chase, the Vikings knew something was up.

Astrid was just leaving her house for the morning, intending to find Hiccup and get him to take her flying with Toothless, but instead of being greeted by an eager dragon and a bashful husband, she was assaulted by the shouts of the villagers and the snarls and growls of Toothless. The house Astrid shared with Hiccup was on top of a small hill that over-looked the west side of the village, and from her doorstep she could see the entire scene in one glance. She gasped as she realized what was going on; apparently, the smaller Nightfury; Duskfury, as Hiccup had deemed it, with a few of Berk's residents joining Toothless and trying to catch the Duskfury. In front of the crowd, as they usually were when trouble cropped up in Berk, were the Thorston twins.

It was no secret that Ruffnut loved causing trouble. Even as an adult she loved a good fight, and was constantly picking on her lazy bum-of-a-brother, Tuffnut. But there was one other thing the girl loved, and it was power. Not power for the sake of power, but rather, power for the purpose of tormenting her brother. The lazy sack had been kicked out of his parent's house not long ago and had been staying with his sister, much to Ruffnut's dislike. But this, this was an opportunity she couldn't pass up! She's taken one step outside that morning, and found a wild Nightfury running around like a head-less chicken! What luck! With a dragon like that under her command, Tuffnut would never bother her again! He might even move out! She HAD to have it!

Tuffnut, on the other hand, was chasing the Nightfury for the sake of keeping it out of his sister's hands. He knew why she wanted it; she'd make his life a living hell with it! That was why HE needed it; for self preservation! And the preservation of his residence! He didn't have anywhere else to go!

Astrid sighed. Of course this would happen on a Monday. Things like this ALWAYS happened on Mondays. She told herself she wouldn't get herself involved with that runt of a Nightfury, but…the allure of the chase was just too great! Despite being on good terms with the dragons in the Village, Astrid was still a Viking, and Vikings chased dragons. Maybe they didn't harm them anymore, or kill them, or mount their heads in their living rooms, but they could chase. Nobody had ever said they couldn't chase! And so she did.

To the left! No, the right! Stop, GO! Run, Frigma, Run! Why was this happening? She just wanted to get away! And now she was being chased! Ugg, this was going to be a bad day. Frigma kept her wings extended as she ran, hoping they might catch a breeze and help her fly away, but al they really did was knock people over as she ran and scratch deep gouges into houses. There was a little claw on the joint of her wing that she hadn't noticed. Oh, so THAT was what was scratching everything! Good to know, good to know. But at the moment she couldn't have cared less.

Frigma scrambled over a pile of logs stacked up against one side of a house, but in her mad dash, she miss-stepped and sent the pile tumbling down. Oops, not another thing she ruined! Great, now they wanted to catch her because she was a Nightfury, AND to punish her for all the destruction!

Frigma skidded to a halt as two Vikings stepped directly in her path. Blast, they were blocking her way out into the forest! She'd have to try and get around the growing crowd forming behind her and double back. She could squeeze through the houses farther north, and be rid of these pesky Vikings! But as she whipped her head around, she saw that the three or four Vikings that had initially started to chase after her had now grown to 20 or 30 Vikings, Astrid, Hiccup, the Twins and Stoick all included! Where was the ironic chase-scene music when you needed it?

Thinking of nothing better to do and hoping it would actually work this time, Frigma extended her wings again and leapt up in to the air, trying to watch the wind in the membranes stretched between her wing-fingers.

Two things happened then. One, she found out that, despite how she wished she could at the moment, she just couldn't get the hand of flying. And Two, Vikings had very long arms. Just as her wings were flapping downwards and she was trying to gain some altitude, someone's hand caught her back leg and yanked her down, right out of the sky! This might not have been a very smart idea, because the VERY heavy Nightfury then came crashing down on the crowd of Vikings, now shrieking and trying to get away. The one who had pulled Frigma down was already half-way across the Village by the time she hit the ground, but Stoick quickly took his place, and placed a foot down on her exposed belly. Uh-Oh. This wasn't good.

Frigma grimaced as she saw the expression on Stoick's face. He did not look happy. She didn't try to wiggle free, she knew if she did, he's just put more pressure on his foot and crush her stomach. She wasn't a moron, just scared.

"You've caused a lot of damage, haven't you?" Stoick said in a low voice, squinting down at the Nightfury. His eyes locked with the dragons for a moment, before his head whipped up to stare at the Vikings gathering around. "Be gone, the lot of ya'!" he bellowed, waving his hand. "Ya've all got work ter be done! Ya've wasted enough time already this morning'!" At Stoick's command, many of the Vikings cleared out, muttering under their breaths and stealing glances back behind them. Frigma swallowed hard. The only ones who stayed were Hiccup, Astrid and Ruffnut. Toothless sat nearby, a smug look on his evil little face.

**(Page Break)**

"Well, what are we ta do with you?" Stoick murmured, scratching his head. He was sitting across from Hiccup, Astrid and Frigma in the Great Hall. Hiccup was holding Frigma's head, masquerading the fact that he was meant to restrain her by patting her in between the eyes. Astrid was hovering nearby, worried that the Duskfury might snap and hurt Hiccup. Toothless was not allowed inside, to which he didn't like. Hiccup knew his dragon didn't like the newcomer, and wanted the Duskfury as calm as it could be while Stoick decided it's fate.

Stoick shook his head and let out a dry little laugh.

"Hiccup, I really can't understand you." He said. "Ya find a Nightfury, make 'em a new tail, change everything we know about dragons, and then, ya go and find this lump!" Frigma let out a tiny sigh at the word 'lump'. She was NOT a lump! "So, what yer tellin' me, is tha' this thing can't fly, can't fight, and is scared o' humans?"

"Well, I didn't say it couldn't fight," Hiccup said, his eyes flickering between his father and the dragon. "It can fight, but," he lowered his voice and leaned in closer to Stoick. "It's not a very good fighter."

"I see." Stoick said, smiling. "So what IS it good at?"

To this, Frigma tossed her head back, snorting, but Hiccup didn't lose his grip. He had a plan. If he could just convince his father that this Duskfury meant no harm when it destroyed half the village, he could let him let it stay. And if the people of Berk had it living right in their mists and could see how calm and gentle it could be, nobody would ever suspect it had attacked Frigma. Hiccup didn't know why, but he felt the need to protect this small Nightfury. He knew it was innocent.

"It's really smart!" Hiccup said, giving a weak smile. "It…it seems to understand what we say! And not just when you talk about food either! Watch," he turned his gaze down to Frigma, his eyes locking with hers. "Dragon, I'm going to let Toothless back in now, okay?"

Frigma knew what they'd been talking about. She knew Hiccup was trying to make a point here, a point that very well might save her hide. Going back to the forest was not an option anymore. The whole Village of Berk would be out hunting her if she were to flee, and she couldn't fly off the Island, so she'd be trapped, and probably end up right back here anyway. Her best option, now, would be to try and fit in with the Vikings. So she played along. She knew they wouldn't really let Toothless back into the hall, but she whimpered and shook her head and acted like she was scared. It seemed to impress Astrid, who smiled, too, but Stoick didn't seem too convinced.

"So? That thing could just be scared of you." He said, rolling his eyes. Hiccup's eyebrows gathered on his forehead, and he scowled at Stoick.

"Fine, then watch thins," He looked back at Frigma, and very deliberately and slowly, asked "What are you Dragon? He or she?" Frigma almost rolled her eyes. If she was a real dragon, there was no way she'd have been able to answer that! But…given the circumstances; she decided to really give them a shock. She'd show Stoick she was smart.

She wiggled out of Hiccup's grasp and darted over to the wall, next to one of the wooden support beams. She looked back at the group of Vikings, who were staring at her with a look of confusion. She tossed her head, and waved her tail at them.

"Does…does tha' thing want us ter foller it?" Stoick finally said. Hiccup just shrugged, but they all walked over to her anyway. Then, slowly, trying to make the characters as clear as she could, she scribbled the letters for "She" into the wood with her claws. They were a little messy, but readable, in Frigma's opinion. When she was done, she set her foot back down and tipped her head back to look at the Vikings. All three had their mouths hanging open, staring intently at the letters carved upon the wood. Astrid lowered her hand and set it on Frigma's head, and smiled.

"That looks better than Hiccup's handwriting." She said quietly. Frigma just purred. Stoick just snorted.

"Fine. It can stay. But it had better help clean up the mess it made!"


	11. Chapter 11: Scritch Scratch

**Chapter Eleven: Scritch Scratch**

Stoick watched approvingly as the new member of the dragon community padded over to Hiccup and Astrid, a large plank of wood in its mouth. Since about noon, that Nightfury had been skittering along beside the pair, helping out with whatever in the Village that needed to be repaired. And he had to admit; that dragon was exceptionally smart. During the spring time, Stoick had constructed about ten new houses, and of course he employed the help of the dragons with that, but soon found out that they were strong but stupid. They didn't understand a word the Vikings said, couldn't follow directions, and were VERY distractible. But not this dragon, no, when Hiccup had told that Nightfury to fetch his tools from the forge, it returned with exactly the right tools, and when Astrid had asked it to help her haul wood up a hill, it knew exactly what she had asked it and did exactly as she told it! Stoick couldn't figure out how, but this dragon had, indeed, learned how to understand human language!

Frigma didn't mind working. She didn't mind that Hiccup kept stepping on her feet with his metal leg, and she didn't mind that Astrid kept referring to her as a boy. What she did mind, though, were the looks the Villagers kept giving her, and the words they whispered behind their hands.

"Look at how scrawny it is!"

"Is it even a Nightfury? It's…gray!"

"It really doesn't look like Toothless at all!" And speaking of Toothless, he was currently perched up on one of the giant fish-bowls not far from his human, watching the newcomer through slitted eyes. He didn't like her prancing around and mingling with his humans. He didn't like her stealing the spot light from him. And he _especially_ didn't like the look Hiccup kept giving her when she did something he liked. That show-off, he thought. Thinks she's such a great dragon because she can do a few tricks!

Frigma didn't like Toothless staring at her, either. But she knew he wouldn't dare attack her when Hiccup was so close by, and showing favor towards her. Maybe this whole human-turned-dragon thing was actually working to her advantage! All the physical capabilities of a dragon, all the mental capacity of a human! Maybe this wasn't going to be such a bad day after all!

"C'mon, dragon, there's a pile of wood down by the forge that needs re-stacking," Hiccup said after a while, giving her a sarcastic smile. He limped off towards the forge, Astrid in tow, and Frigma followed close behind.

"You know, we can't keep calling it 'Dragon'." Astrid said, wrapping her arm around Hiccup, helping to steady him as they walked. "I feel sort of…bad calling it just 'Dragon'. He needs a name."

"She," Hiccup corrected. Frigma's ears went up a little. "She needs a name." Well, at least SOMEbody around here knew what she was! She swiveled her head from Astrid to Hiccup; Astrid looking a little curious and Hiccup looking like he was deep in thought.

"I've been thinking," he started, to which Astrid rolled her eyes.

"Oh no. Bad things happen when you think!" She said jokingly. Hiccup gave her a little push and smiled a crooked smile at her.

"No, seriously! Toothless always, or, most always comes when he's called, because he knows his name. Or at least, he knows the name we've given him. But what if he had another name? You know, when he lived among other Nightfuries, because he's now obviously not the only one." He motioned to Frigma, who didn't really know how to react. She didn't like where this was going. "So, what if this Nightfury already has a name? Since she can write, and obviously can understand what we're saying, maybe we can get her to tell us her name!" Hiccup finished his little explanation, looking triumphant, but Astrid looked skeptical.

"Hiccup, I usually go along with what you say, because you're usually right, but this? This is just crazy! Just because she can understand us doesn't mean every dragon can! Look at Toothless! Reckless and disobedient! Nice and well-meaning, but disobedient none the less! How can you say dragons might have names when Toothless barely knows what Fish means?" This seemed to put a damper in Hiccup's expression, and even Frigma knew the truth in Astrid's words. There wasn't a Nightfury alive like her. Literally. But Hiccup wasn't one to give up, and as the trio approached the forge, he broke away from Astrid and went inside, only to withdraw a few seconds later with a large, flat piece of wood and a small smile.

"Here," He said to Frigma, setting the wood on the ground in front of her. Frigma just stared at it. "Can you write other letters? Can you write out your name?" Oh dear. So this is what Hiccup wanted. Well, she couldn't do it; how could she? If she scrawled out 'Frigma', then all sorts of suspicions would be drawn up, and Hiccup wasn't dumb. He'd somehow put two and two together; that the girl who had just gone missing and the dragon he'd just found both had the same names. No, she couldn't write her name. She couldn't write any name.

Frigma had lived as Frigma for all her life. How could she give herself any name but the perfect name her Mother bestowed upon her. She loved her name! She was set in stone on this subject: She would NOT christen herself as anything other than Frigma, and even if nobody knew it was her name, she would never take on another. So she just sat and stared blankly at the boy. She even tipped her head a little for effect.

"I told you," Astrid scoffed, snatching the wood up. "Probably doesn't even know what name means." Hiccup took the wood away from his wife, who was now growing annoying, and set it back on the ground.

"Your name, you know? What other dragons call you? What you answer to." Frigma had to really restrain herself from rolling her eyes. Yes, she knew what name meant, duh! So, just to shut him up, she started scratching her nails into the wood, creating the tiny characters that formed words. Hiccup laughed and Astrid 'humph'-ed, but neither of them had seen the full message yet.

When Hiccup peered back down at the wood when the Duskfury was done, he didn't find a name, but a small phrase:

"don't have one" she had written, much to the disappointment of the boy. But he hadn't been wrong; it wasn't that dragons weren't capable of having their own names, she just didn't have one. Maybe she was a nomadic Nightfury.

"See?" Astrid closed the conversation with a small nod and kicked the wood away from Frigma. "No name, so we need to give one to her."

"But, Astrid, it seems so…insulting to name something so intelligent. Shouldn't it name itself?" No, NO! Frigma didn't want another name! And she certainly didn't want to pick another name for herself! They'd named Toothless Toothless, why couldn't they just call her no-name? It made just about as much sense as Toothless did, taking into account the fact that Toothless had very big, very sharp teeth. Frigma waddled over to the plank Astrid had kicked away and started scratching more symbols into it.

"No" she scratched, and shoved it towards Hiccup.

"No?" he replied. "No what?" Ugg, where these Vikings so daft? Hiccup was supposed to be the smart one!

"I won't pick name" she scratched again, putting a bit more pressure into this carving, making them wider and deeper. Just to add emphasis.

"Huh?" This time it was Astrid. "Why not?" Oh, for the love of Odin! She was tired of answering these questions! She had a stack of wood to pile! So with an 'I-can't-believe-your-stupidity' look, she stalked off to the logs strewn about on the other side of the forge.

Hiccup and Astrid just stood dumbfounded. Neither really knew what to make of the exchange that had just taken place, but one thing was clear; a lot of thought would have to go into this new Nightfury's name.


	12. Chapter 12: Suitable Name

**Hey y'all! Me again! So, I really need you guy's opinion! This story can't get much further if I don't know the answer to this question: Should Toothless and Frigma fall in love! I have a poll on my account, but it's come to my attention that for some reason some people can't vote on it! So I'm going to just put the option here and if you can't vote on my page (which I still encourage you to try!) and want to have some say in what happens next in the story, please leave a review with your answer! **

_**Option One:**_ Yes, She should fall for Toothless (But do keep it tasteful!)

_**Option Two:**_ Yes and No, Toothless should assume Big-Brother role (Aww, now that sound cute!)

_**Option Three:**_ Yes and No, They should be more like friends and playmates (Well, that's cute, too!)

_**Option Four:**_ No, But her and Toothless should tolerate each other (No spats but no cuddling)

_**Option Five:**_ No, and she and Toothless should continued to be enemies (Spats plz!)

**I can't continue the story if I don't hear back from the readers! I'll give a day for you to reply, and I'll be posting the next chapter Wednesday Night or Thursday! It's up to you guys!**

**Chapter Twelve: Suitable Name**

Frigma rested her head on her front legs. The sun was just rising, and it was promising to be warm that morning; whatever warm meant to a Viking. It would at least get above 30 degrees that day. She gingerly drew her tongue over her front right foot; a pretty deep gash snaked its way down her leg, a 'reminder' of how much Toothless utterly despised her.

Yesterday had started to seem like it would turn out okay. Hiccup and Frigma had finished piling all the logs back up, and Astrid had helped them re-construct a support beam in the forge that had been cracked from that days escapades. Frigma didn't mind the work; she found that it was sort of refreshing to be able to use all her new-found strength! No, the real trouble began on the hike home.

Well, what did she expect? Of course Toothless would be angry! A new, smarter Nightfury appears and just tried to barge into his home with his people? Frigma might have done the same. Maybe. But as soon as the smaller Nightfury set a claw through the front door of Hiccup's house, Toothless sprang out of the shadows, snarling and biting. Frigma made a mental note to get down to the training arena and watch one of the dragon training sessions. When Vikings were old enough and had enough experience with their dragons, the twins taught a battle class, how to fight on dragon back. As a human, Frigma had thought it barbaric and nonsensical, but now she was thinking it might be a good idea to learn some moves. Toothless had managed the gash in her leg, plus she now had a set of little Teeth-marks in the membrane of her right wing, which hurt like dirt in a cut.

But, Astrid had jumped in at the last minute, screaming about how stupid dragons where ruining her house, and clobbered Toothless on the head with her bare fist. Frigma had to admit; Astrid was scary. But that seemed to shut the bigger Nightfury up, and he slunk off to the back of the house. Frigma had slept next to the door all night, one eye open and readying herself for a quick get-away if Toothless tried to ambush her in the darkness. But he was quiet the entire night, and had only shot her a death-glare as he passed through the door with Hiccup at dawn.

Now it was just Astrid and Frigma in the house. Astrid was sleeping late (who would have guessed Astrid was the lazy type?) and Frigma had been busying herself up until now with investigating the house. There were so many new smells she'd never noticed as a human! Fish smelled completely different; instead of a customarily fishy, slimy scent, it now smelled almost sweet, and a little salty. Wood didn't just smell like wood, but of the forest itself, mold and grass and sea-air in all! It was exciting to be able to relax and just draw in the surroundings. But now, everything been sniffed over, Frigma decided to wait for Astrid to wake up.

Hiccup's house was a two story; unusual for Vikings. It was probably because he was pretty smart, and figured out how to build that kind of house. But both he and Astrid slept on the top level, and Frigma skittered up the set of stairs and peeked her head over the landing.

The upstairs was plainer than she'd imagined it to be. It was just a bed, with a sleeping Astrid in it, a little table on Hiccup's side of the bed, a dresser on Astrid's side, and this little wooden chest at the foot. There was only one circular window, so the room was pretty dim, but Frigma didn't have any trouble seeing. This night-vision was really working for her!

As Frigma was sniffing around the room, she thought she scented something familiar. It smelled….a little like honey and….cedar wood. Why did it smell so familiar? She followed her nose, hoping to catch sight of the mystery object she couldn't pull her attention from, but as she stepped up to the dresser and started to sniff the few trinkets that sat on the top, Astrid yawned loudly and stretched.

"Good morning," She said as she sat up and rubbed her eyes. Frigma stopped trying to find the source of the scent (it was probably still rude to riffle through people's stuff, even if you were a dragon) and blinked a few times in greeting. Astrid looked around slowly, a confused look on her face. "Is Hiccup already gone?" she asked, to which Frigma nodded. "Damn, I wanted that man to help me with something today." Frigma tipped her head to one side, and stood and followed the girl as Astrid strode out of the room and walked down stairs. "Oh, it's really nothing I NEED help with, I just sort of WANTED help with it."

Frigma was still confused, but when Astrid led her outside and over to the cliffs above the docks, she started to understand. Astrid flashed her a smile and pointed out to the open air above the vast ocean in front of them.

"I was actually hoping, you know, if that scuffle with Toothless last night didn't hurt you too bad, that we could try flying today." That 'scuffle' DID actually hurt, not that Astrid seemed to care, but that wasn't the only reason Frigma tried to turn tail and run. Not only did she not WANT to fly (unless absolutely necessary) she COULDN'T fly, especially not with Astrid on her back! Did that girl WANT to plummet into the freezing water below and DIE! Frigma couldn't help but think that was her ambition. But Astrid was strong, and before Frigma knew what was going on, the Viking was dragging her back by her tail.

"Listen, I know you have trouble with it. I saw when you tried to fly away yesterday; it wasn't graceful," Frigma snorted in contempt and dug her nails into the ground to try and slow Astrid down. "But maybe we could work on it together. I don't have a dragon, you know." To this, Frigma gave a small glance behind her at the Viking. Astrid's face was a little pale looking, and Frigma knew why. Last year, her Nader, Brute, had mysteriously passed away. Everyone assumed it was some sort of dragon-specific disease, but none of the other dragons caught it. But it was quick; one day, Brute was healthy and carting Astrid around on his back, and the next, he was wheezing and spitting up blood. It was tragic. Frigma let out a little woofing sound, and Astrid snapped right out of it. "And, you don't have a rider. Besides, maybe if I accept you, Toothless will stop bullying you." This part of the deal DID sound good. But just to be safe, Frigma yanked her tail from Astrid's grip and sat down. Accept Astrid? Yes, she would. But fly? Not today. And Astrid seemed to get that. With a huff and a sigh and a hem and a haw, she reluctantly plopped herself down next to the pale gray dragon.

"You're a weird dragon." She commented, running her hand over Frigma's scales. "You read, you write, you understand everything I say, it's almost like talking to a human!" If Astrid only knew how close to the truth she really was! Frigma lowered her head and started licking the gash on her leg again. "And you don't fly? Did your Mother never teach you?" No, no she hadn't. Astrid leaned against Frigma, her back against the dragon's side. "Spent too much time learning to read and write, I guess. Never got your wings."

"That's it!" She sat up with a start. It startled Frigma a bit, who jumped and stared angrily at the human. Astrid's smile was back, and there was a devilish twinkle in her eye. Oh no. "I know what to call you! Toothless is named Toothless because of the whole retractable teeth thing, but also because he didn't have the guts to bite Hiccup! So you can be Wingless!" That was it. A dragon could only take so much! Frigma got up, causing Astrid to fall backwards onto her elbows. The Nightfury started to stomp off, but Astrid caught up with her, keeping pace at her side.

"Hera me out; he can't bite, so he's Toothless! You can't fly, so you'll be Wingless! It's not that you don't actually have them; you just can't, or won't use them! It's brilliant, right?" That was the stupidest name Frigma had ever heard in her life! No, if they HAD to give her a name, it was the dumbest one they could think of. Karma. This was Karma.

Astrid raced up to stand in front of Frigma. "Listen; you didn't want to pick your own name. If you've had a change of heart, by all means, choose a name for yourself! But if you won't, I will, and it'll be Wingless, got that?" That stumped Frigma. She DIDN'T want to choose her own name. So it looked like she was stuck. Rolling her eyes and flattening her ears, she grunted and sat down. Astrid smirked and patted her head. "I knew you'd see things my way."


	13. Chapter 13: Competition and Consolation

**Here are the results!**

_**Option One:**_ Yes, She should fall for Toothless (But do keep it tasteful!) **14 Votes**

_**Option Two:**_ Yes and No, Toothless should assume Big-Brother role (Aww, now that sound cute!) **2 Votes**

_**Option Three:**_ Yes and No, They should be more like friends and playmates (Well, that's cute, too!) **1 Vote**

_**Option Four:**_ No, But her and Toothless should tolerate each other (No spats but no cuddling) **1 Vote**

_**Option Five:**_ No, and she and Toothless should continued to be enemies (Spats plz!) **0 Votes**

**By an overwhelming majority, it had been decided what will happen! Thank you everyone who submitted a suggestion! And don't worry, I read everyone's reviews, and I'm really happy you all like my story!**

**Get ready, cuz this one's ganna be a long one!**

**Chapter Thirteen: Competition and Consolation**

Frigma ran her claws over the floor, leaving score marks perpendicular to the grain of the wood. It's not like anyone would notice; there were plenty of claw marks already all over Hiccup's house from Toothless. Even the ceiling! What did that dragon do to the poor house?

"Astrid, what did I tell you about naming her?" Hiccup said, irritation creeping into his voice. He was pacing around the front room, Astrid was standing next to Frigma with her arms crossed and a scowl. "You totally disregarded me! She's a smart dragon! A lot of thought needed to go into her name! But no!" He added a bit of sarcasm as he threw his hands up in the air. "You go and name her WINGLESS!"

"Listen here," Astrid snapped, jabbing her finger at Hiccup. "I DID put a lot of thought into that name! I thought you would be happy; I modeled her name after Toothless!" Hiccup stopped pacing and let out a sigh.

"I just…I wish you would have consulted me is all." He said. "You never talk to me about anything! You always just rush into things! And…" He trailed off and started to rub his hands together.

"What?"

"Well…I sort of wanted to name her, too." Astrid smiled at this.

"I was thinking of you when I thought it up! Ask her, she'll vouch for me!" Frigma gave Hiccup a sarcastic stare, but after a moment, reluctantly nodded. Hiccup's shoulders relaxed, but his eye still looked sad. Astrid seemed to catch on this and walked over to Hiccup. "I didn't name her in spite of you or anything! But, you have to admit, it really is perfect!" She gave him a peck on the cheek, and he blushed profusely.

"Y-yeah, well, I guess it is." He stammered. 'Oh brother!' Frigma thought. She wasn't really happy about her name, but she supposed it could be worse. And it really was better than being referred to as 'Hey Dragon!' or 'Little Nightfury!'.

Behind Hiccup sat Toothless. Toothless was currently refusing to acknowledge the existence of 'Wingless'. Even more so, he was refusing to acknowledge Hiccup, either. How dare he name the new dragon something so close to Toothless's name! It was downright insulting. Toothless didn't know Astrid was the one who initially thought it up, but that didn't matter to him. They were both traitors in his eyes.

Instead of looking at Wingless, he was pointedly looking out a window. It was drizzling outside, not hard, but enough to get any Viking caught outside soaked. Toothless hated the rain; it was wet and nasty and ever since he'd been a hatchling, he'd hated it! He hated even just looking at it, but there wasn't anywhere else to look; it was either the rain, Hiccup of Wingless.

Frigma saw him staring at the window, making a face. He was quite obvious. Not like he was trying to hide it, anyway; it was no secret the contempt he felt for Frigma. But Frigma was bored; the rain kept her inside, and Hiccup and Astrid were actually pretty boring people, so there really wasn't much to do. What was a dragon to do?

**(Page Break)**

Toothless had just curled up in the corner of the room, ready to go to sleep, when he felt a jab in his back. Opening his left eye, he spied Astrid, standing over him with her hands on her hips. He almost gave her one of his famous toothless smiles, but then remembered he was mad at her. So instead, he buried his head back under his wing and grumbled.

"Stop that," Astrid complained, jabbing him in the side again with her boot. This time, he sat up and glared at her. "Don't give me any of that. You know I don't fall for it." It was true. Whatever Toothless did, it never seemed to have the desired effect on Astrid. Why Hiccup had married her…..was totally beyond the dragon.

Astrid rolled her eyes and sat down next to Hiccup's dragon. Toothless wrinkled his nose at her, so she pushed his face away. "Fine, you can be mad at me" she said, shrugging, "but why do you have to be mad at Wingless?" Toothless didn't understand the majority of the woman's words, but his ears did prick up at the mention of Wingless's name. "She did not ever do one bad thing to you, and you keep attacking her!" Ah, there was another word Toothless understood: Attack! Did Astrid want him to attack Wingless? Judging from her tone of voice and body language, he guessed not. It was too bad; the useless reptile was sitting right down stairs, begging her pathetic little eyes out as Hiccup cooked some fish. It was an opportune time.

"Stop that!" Astrid smacked Toothless on the nose again, this time not smiling. "I know what you're thinking, Toothless! You get that same look every time somebody mentions Wingless! You will not attack her any more, got it?" There was the word Attack again, and Wingless! Maybe Astrid really DID want Toothless to attack her! He let out an excited whine, and rose to his feet, tail wagging. But Astrid had other plans. Grabbing the Nightfury's head, she glared right into his eyes and said, very slowly: "Do. Not. Attack." Toothless's tail drooped as he also recognized the word Not. Oh, she DIDN'T want him to attack Wingless. Well, that was a shame! Dropping back down onto her haunches, he let out another grumble. Astrid smirked and straightened out again.

"Maybe all dragons CAN understand us!" she said, more to herself than to Toothless. "I wonder if Toothless can write, also," but giving a single glance at him, she shook her head and started for the stairs. "No, no, no! Toothless, be as smart as Wingless? There's just no way!" It was a good thing Toothless COULDN'T understand her; that would have really boiled his blood!

**(Page Break)**

Frigma woke with a start the next day, surprised not to hear the sound of rain hitting the roof. It was barely dawn, only the first rays of the morning were peeking over the horizon, but still the house was full of activity. Astrid was running around, calling and looking for a lost boot while pulling a brush through her hair. Hiccup was hobbling about, gathering odds and end here and there, weird looking pieces of metal and papers with sketches on them. Toothless was prancing around in between the two, enjoying all the commotion.

"Hiccup, please tell me Toothless DIDN'T chew my boot up again! If I'm late, Ruff and Tuff won't ever let me hear the end of it!" She looked stressed, and Frigma, not wanting to be on the bad side of a stressed out Viking, jumped up and started sniffing around.

"C'mon, they're late all the time," Hiccup said, not looking up from the last minute changes he was making to one of the sketches. Astrid stopped in the middle of the room and slumped.

"I know! And I'm always giving them crap for it! That's why I can't be late! If I'M late, then they'll never show up again!" Frigma stuck her head behind a chair pushed into a corner, finding the lost prize sitting against the wall. She let out bark (how could you really describe dragon sounds?) and brought it out into view. Astrid didn't see her right away, and when Frigma nudged her hand, Astrid started shouting.

"What! Can't you see I'm- My Boot!" he face melted into a smile as she snatched the boot out of Frigma's mouth and threw it on her foot. Hiccup gave Frigma a smile and a shrug.

"She's crazy, but you learn to live with it," he said with a laugh. Astrid gave him one of her looks, and made for the door.

"I'll see you later, Hic," she called. "C'mon, Wingless, let's go!" Frigma still wasn't used to being called Wingless, and when she didn't follow right away, Astrid stuck her head back through the door and shouted again. "Wingless! Let's GO! Places to be, you know!"

Astrid had really long legs, and even if Frigma was a dragon, she still found it hard to match the human's pace, especially since she was hurrying to try and make it to…wherever it was she was going, on time. Frigma didn't understand what was going on that morning; but whatever it was, it was important.

As they walked (more like jogged) Astrid kept stealing glances down at Frigma. At first this didn't really bother her, but after several minutes, it was just downright annoying! Frigma grumbled and raised an eyebrow at Astrid. "_For the love of Odin, what is it?"_ she thought, wishing Astrid could read minds.

"I'm sorry, I didn't think I was bothering you," Astrid said with a laugh, "It's just, you're eyes are a really weird color," "_Hey!"_ Frigma resented that, and wapped Astrid on the back of her knees with her tail. "Ouch! No, I mean, weird for a dragon! Usually dragons have yellow eyes or green eyes, but your eyes are….really unique." Hmm? As a human, Frigma's eyes were a light-ish green color, and she wondered what color they were now. She tipped her head and perked her ears up. "They're sort of green…but also kind of blue….it's like sea foam, y'know?" Yes, she did know. So her eyes hadn't changed color. Well, that was good to know.

Now that she thought about it, Frigma hadn't properly looked at herself since becoming a Nightfury. She knew her scales were gray and not black, and she knew her eyes were still sea-foam green, but that was about it. Astrid and Hiccup didn't keep a mirror in their home; barely any Viking did. She couldn't believe she'd never thought to see her own reflection in a stream or something! Now she was really curious. But she'd have to wait for that; they were now approaching the dragon training arena.

Frigma remembered when it used to be used for dragon slaying training; she'd never gone to a session to participate, but she'd watched. She'd always hated it, and it had always smelled like blood. Now, though, it smelled a little like a horse stable, but most just of mud.

"Finally, she arrives!" a familiar voice called. Tuffnut was standing in front of them, his usual sneer on his pointy face. "We've been waiting for you forever!"

"Well, I'm here now," Astrid replied, flipping her braid over her shoulder. "Where's Ruff?" Tuffnut jabbed his thumb over his shoulder at the arena.

"Back there, trying to wrangle the little beasts,"

"The children or the dragons?" To this both humans laughed, and Frigma longed to join in, but didn't know if she wanted to show off her intelligence around Tuffnut or his sister. They were dumb, and Frigma did so love to show off her smarts n front of dumb people, but they were also malicious little brutes. Dumb and mean didn't make for a good combination, so Frigma just kept quiet as Tuffnut led her and Astrid towards the arena.

"So, that's that new Nightfury, huh?" Tuffnut remarked causally. His words were laid back enough, but the twinkle in his eye rubbed Frigma the wrong way. He'd been one of the Vikings trying to catch her the other day.

"Yeah, Wingless."

"Oh brother," Tuffnut grinned. "Her and Toothless got matching names? Ha! That's a laugh!"

"Shut up! Just 'cause you're too dumb to understand the meaning of her name doesn't mean the name is stupid!" Astrid slugged him on the arm, before smiling weakly down at Frigma. Frigma flicked her ears in thanks.

"Who's too dumb to what now?" Ruffnut called as the trio entered the arena through the giant gate. "You two pipe down! I'm trying to teach these little- Oh! I see you brought that Nightfury!" The same twinkle in Tuff's eyes was now in his twin's eyes, and she crookedly smiled. Turning to the line of pre-adolescent children in front of her, she snapped: "Stay put! Don't you dare touch those dragons!" and then walked over to Frigma and Astrid. "Planning on using it in the lesson?" She asked, placing a hand on Frigma's nose.

"SHE'S here just to demonstrate something. She's not gonna fight today." Astrid knocked Ruffnut's hand away and glared at the girl. "And HER name is Wingless." Ruffnut glared right back at Astrid, and then abruptedly turned back to the 'class'. Frigma wished somebody had told her she'd be demonstrating something! What use could she possibly have?

"Kids, shut up and listen! Astrid's here and she's got something to tell you, and she's not gonna repeat it!" Ruffnut wasn't exactly the teacher type, but for some reason, she really liked working with kids. Even if the kids didn't exactly like her back, they DID listen, if only out of fear. Nobody ever accused her of being a bad teacher; just a bad person.

Astrid bent down and whispered something in Frigma's ear: "Just play along. It won't take long, and then you can sit aside and watch. I just want to show the kids that dragons listen best when you're not shouting at them." So that was the whole plan. Well, it seemed harmless enough, and Frigma saw no harm in playing along. Patting her nose, Astrid signaled for Frigma to stay put, and walked over to the row of children.

"I'd like to introduce you all to Wingless." She said. All the children craned their necks to see around Astrid, and their eyes were big as plates. It's not like they'd never seen a Nightfury before….just….not two. Astrid smiled and turned around to face the dragon, before opening her mouth.

"WINGLESS! Get over here, you lazy reptile!" she shouted, her voice echoing off the walls of the arena. Frigma was so startled by the sudden outburst, she leapt about ten feet in the air, landed and collided with Tuffnut, who wasn't standing far away. She let out a yelp, and so did half of the children.

"_What the heck!"_ Frigma thought, flattening her ears against her head. "_I thought this was about being NICE to your dragon!"_

"See how she jumped and DIDN'T follow my command?" Astrid asked the kids. A few nodded, but one boy stepped out of line, his eyebrows furrowed.

"Maybe you need to yell louder?" he suggested, his evil little eyes flicking from his substitute teacher to Frigma and back. This made Astrid sigh and rub her temple.

"Well, just watch this," She stooped down to a crouch, and called out: "Wingless, c'mere Wingless!" in a softer voice. Frigma stumbled back up to her feet and eyed Astrid warily before taking a few steps forward. After a moment, and after she'd assessed what had just happened, she bounded the rest of the distance and nudged Astrid's outstretched hand. A few of the children 'ooo'-ed, but the outspoken boy from before still didn't look happy. "See? Dragons don't like to be yelled at, just like YOU don't like to be yelled at. Sometimes, all you have to do is ask nicely."

"Tell that to them!" On girl piped up, pointing to Ruffnut, who was helping Tuffnut stand back up. The look on both their faces was so hilarious, a mix of confusion and anger, that Frigma let out a warble of laughter, which got all the kids laughing, too. Even Astrid chuckled a bit, but the twins weren't so amused.

"Shut up, all of you! That just earned you five more laps around the arena!" Ruffnut barked at them. With a few groans and complaints, the kids started off.

"They're just having a little fun," Astrid commented, scratching Frigma's head. "You don't have to be so sour all the time."

"I am not sour." Ruffnut said coolly, peering at Frigma out of the corner of her eye. "Is that all you wanted to do with it?" she asked. "Thought maybe you were actually going to teach them something useful."

"That WAS useful!" Astrid stood up, her nose flaring. "All you want to teach them is how to mis-treat their dragons! Just because your Zippleback is so unruly that it only responds to violence and verbal abuse, doesn't mean that every dragon is!" That one struck a blow, Frigma could tell. Ruffnut stumbled back a bit, before stepping up again and getting in Astrid's face.

"And just because YOU'RE too much of a pansy to take charge with these things, doesn't mean these kids have to be, too! Maybe if you'd been a little more stringent with your training of Brute, he'd still be here!"

Astrid's mouth hung open as she stared at the other girl. There was silence for a minute, Tuffnut stood behind his sister and touched her shoulder. "Uh, Ruff? Maybe-"

"WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY TO ME!" Astrid blew up! But you couldn't hear her words as she screamed at her so-called friend, they were completely drowned out by the warbled snarls and roars coming from the dragon at Astrid's feet. It had taken Frigma's mind a few moments to process what had been said, but once she'd realized the severity of the insult that had just been paid to Astrid, she'd jumped right up to defend her. You could almost hear the profanity in Frigma's incoherent roars, and the children all stopped to stare at the disturbance.

"HOW DARE YOU MENTION BRUTE LIKE THAT! HOW DARE YOU INSULT MY TEACHING STYLE! IT WASN'T….WASN'T….wasn't my fault that…that he….." he words became quieter as she approached the last words of her sentence. Her face fell from an angry snarl to a miserable frown, and Frigma's growling and roars cut off as a teardrop hit the muddy ground. Turning her head to see Astrid's face, she saw a few silver streaks run down her cheeks, and the subsequent patter of water as it hit the ground. Before she broke out into sobs, Astrid bit her lip, and looking back up at Ruffnut, who was stunned into a state of immobility, slapped her full in the face. Not punched (that was reserved for Hiccup's arm) but actually slapped. A few children gasped as the sound rung around the small space, and then, Astrid took off running.

Frigma followed almost on instinct, but it was, again, hard to keep up. Especially since the ground was muddy underfoot, but she always had the scent trail. She followed her nose until she finally arrived back at the forge. Astrid could be heard sobbing inside, along with Hiccups voice, hushed and confused.

Cautiously, Frigma stuck her head over the window at the front of the forge, only to see the door to Hiccup's back room flung wide open, with Toothless laying in front of it. Astrid was inside, she could tell, and Frigma wanted to go in, too, but Toothless was eyeing like he wished she'd drop dead then and there.

"W-what's wrong?" Hiccup said in the room. "What happened? Astrid, tell me what happened!"

"I'm s-sorry! I'm sorry!" Astrid wailed. "I can't help it, he just died!"

"Who? Who died?"

"BRUTE!" Frigma's eyes kept flicking up and down, and she swished her tail nervously. She wanted to go in, but was still terrified of Toothless. "I'm sorry!"

There was a little pause where Hiccup didn't say a word, and all Frigma could hear was Astrid crying.

"It's okay, Astrid." He finally said, quieter now. "It wasn't your fault. It was nobody's fault. Sometimes…things just…leave."

"I'm so so sorry!" That was it, Frigma couldn't take it anymore. She hopped in through the window, landing about five feet in front of her enemy, and seven feet in front of her friend. Toothless growled, but she growled right back.

"_She may be your friend, but she's MY friend too!"_ she thought furiously, stalking forward and baring her teeth. Toothless stood up and flexed his wings, making himself look bigger, but Frigma paid him no mind. She wouldn't fall for his intimidation tricks!

"Tooth?" Hiccup called. "Toothless, what's going on?" Toothless turned his head towards Hiccup's voice, and Frigma took her chance as his attention was drawn away, and zipped by him, through the door. She skittered over to Astrid, who had her head and arms resting against Hiccup's knees, and sat down next to the girl. Astrid didn't notice her at first, but when Frigma tapped her shoulder with her nose, she looked up.

Astrid looked terrible, and Frigma meant it in the nicest way possible! But her eyes were already puffy, and her nose was running. She bowed her head slightly, and whined.

"I-I'm sorry, too, Wingless!" she sobbed, hiding her face in her hands. "This isn't fair to you! I…I shouldn't be crying over B-Brute when I have y-you, but I-" Hiccup was petting his wife's hair, looking confused by empathetic. He shot Frigma a questioning glance, and Frigma shrugged.

"Why do you keep saying sorry?" Hiccup asked. Astrid looked up at him.

"B-because I'm supposed to be the s-strong one! But just look at me!" she wailed again. Frigma nudged her head, but to no avail. Astrid wouldn't stop crying, even when Frigma tried to nuzzle her with her head.

"Astrid…" Hiccup trailed off. But just as he opened his mouth to say something again, Toothless stomped in, and, throwing a warning glance at Frigma, plopped down next to Astrid and started licking her face. His eyes never left Frigma's but, for the moment, he was willing to put his contempt aside for the benefit of his friend. Frigma had to admire that.

So two silent pacts were made that day; Frigma vowed never to trust Ruffnut again, and pursue that devil-girl with vengeance, and Toothless promised to keep his hatred at bay, if only for the benefit of his friends.


	14. Chapter 14: Enemy of my Enemy

**Chapter Fourteen: Enemy of my Enemy**

Toothless let out a grumble as he was shoved out of the forge.

"Go play or something!" Hiccup commanded as Toothless tumbled onto the ground. "Astrid's stressed out enough; you two aren't making things any better, alright?" The only condolence Toothless had was that Wingless had also been kicked out and was also sour about it. She was already stalking away, her tail dragging in the mud and her ears laid flat against her head.

Toothless gave one last angry snort, and started walking in the opposite direction of Wingless. He didn't know where she was going, and he didn't really want to know; he was just wondering what he was going to do to entertain himself until Hiccup had come to his senses. This whole crying-thing was still new to Toothless; it seemed superfluous to him. Why did humans have to leak water from their eyes when they were sad? Dragons didn't do that, and for a good reason! Dragons never needed to cry. But, Toothless was worried about Astrid. She had never been so upset about something before, and the Nightfury just wanted to know what had made her so sad! He felt very helpless in this whole situation!

Toothless hadn't even realized it, but his feet had been moving under him while he was thinking and had carried him all the way across the village. He swung his head around and it took him a few minutes to realize he was on the east side of the Village. Not many people lived on the east side; it was comprised of mostly semi-wild dragon nests and the occasional cottage. About five years back, Stoick had moved most of the village westward, to be closer to the docks, and had even constructed a new part of town farther past the old limits. A lot of the houses that used to stand on the east side were taken apart and used for the new constructions or ships, but a few Vikings had stubbornly refused to give up their houses. And one such family of Vikings was the Ingerman family. And just at that moment, the oldest son of the Ingermans, Fishlegs, was sitting with his back against his house, whittling away at a piece of wood.

Toothless padded up to Fishlegs and let out a 'warf' to get his attention. Fishlegs looked up from his carving, his eyes having to work to focus on the dragon. Fishlegs was a very gifted carver, but it was a mystery to almost everyone who knew him personally, because if you asked, he'd tell you he was almost blind.

Fishlegs loved to study things. He liked to study plant life, he liked to study animals, but most of all, he liked to study dragons. After the war with dragons ended, he took it upon himself to re-write the dragon manual, and had spent countless hours trailing after Nightmares and trying to count how many spines were on a Nader's tail. Sometimes he wouldn't even come home for days, because he'd gotten lost chasing a horde of Terrors through the forest, or had gotten stuck on a cliff after trying to catch a glimpse of a nest full of Gronkle eggs. But for all his intelligence, not even he could have predicted the terrible sacrifice he made for all his studious efforts.

Not much was known about the Zippleback when he started to study them, except that they had two heads, that thought independently of one another, one breathed gas and one lit the spark. So Fishlegs started to try and determine what made the gas they breathed ignite. But what he didn't realize was that spending his time submerged in an ocean of pale green fumes would have adverse affects on him. His eye-sight started to go pretty quickly, and with it most of the color in his irises. Nobody knew why, not even Fishlegs, but he was forced to give up his study of the two-headed dragon when his vision became so bad, he almost walked off the dock. Now he a few years older, his baby-fat had fallen off, leaving only muscle, and his eyes were almost useless. They were no longer blue, either, but more of an ashy gray.

Toothless felt a little bad for Fishlegs, but Fishlegs didn't use any of what had happened to him as an excuse. If you didn't already know, you never would have guessed he was blind; after a few years of his decreased ability to see, he'd gotten the hang of functioning without his eyes. And even if he couldn't see the wood he was carving, his sculpture always turned out beautiful; as long as he was carving something he'd studies before he'd gone blind.

As Toothless got closer to the boy, Fishlegs held his hand out and smiled.

"Hey, there Toothless," he said as Toothless pushed his nose into the boy's palm. "I haven't seen you around here in a long time." Even if Fishlegs wasn't considered fat anymore, Toothless still thought his face looked chubby; Hiccup had always called him a 'baby-face'.

"_I wonder if he has any food?"_ Toothless thought blankly, sitting down at Fishlegs' side. He didn't really come here for the conversation, but he had nothing better to do.

"So how's that new Nightfury doing?" Fishlegs asked, scratching Toothless' scales. "Everyone's been talking about it, and about you, hating the living daylights out of it." Fishlegs' words didn't mean anything to Toothless; they were just garble. But Fishlegs' didn't have many people to talk to these days. Ruffnut and he had had a thing on and off for a while, and at the moment, it was off. "I saw Hiccup the other day, you know. He told me she's the smartest thing he's ever seen." At the mention of Hiccup, Toothless let out a sigh. "I've been meaning to hike up to his place and pay her a visit; rumor is she's some sort of literate dragon! Can't really believe it, but I would like to ahem, have a word with it."

Fishlegs laughed at his own lame joke, and Toothless eyed him with a 'you don't expect me to join you?' look.

"Ha, I know what you're thinking." The boy said to Toothless, continuing to carve. "You're probably not too thrilled to have that female around, are you? She takes up your space, hogs attention that should be spent on you, occupies Hiccup's time and energy, and on top of all that, you're probably worried she'll lay eggs and have even MORE Nightfuries in the village." Oh, if only Toothless could understand Fishlegs, because he'd practically hit the nail on the head. "And there is something to be said about being one-of-a-kind. It's kind of cool, isn't it? But with more Nightfuries, it won't be so special anymore. Yeah, I kind of know how that feels." Toothless just grumbled. "But you'll feel differently next spring; they all do. Winter's the worst for females, because no male wants anything to do with 'em. But Spring rolls around and BAM! All the males will be fightin' over them. Kind of silly, huh?" He looked down at Toothless, who didn't look up, only twitched his ear.

"Don't worry, Bud, it's still summer. You've got tons of time before then. It's practically an eternity."

**(Page Break)**

Hiccup thought he was sooo great! The only friend Astrid needed! Well, HE hadn't been there to defend her when Ruffnut had said all those things; HE was just the little wimp Astrid was married to! It boiled Frigma's blood as Hiccup shooed her away like she was just some pesky…..oh, wait. She WAS just some pesky dragon, at least to him. She was the one causing most of the problems in his life right now; the crying Astrid, the hateful Toothless, the semi-wrecked house….the list went on. But Frigma still didn't feel any better. Hiccup was still an idiot.

Frigma rarely had time to herself these days. Since she'd been found and kept in Berk, she was usually either accompanied by Astrid or Hiccup, and when neither of them was present, Toothless was snapping at her heels. So it was almost nice to have a few minutes of peace. It was still relatively early, so not many Vikings were up and about, and the ones that were seemed too sleepy-eyed to really bother her. So she let her legs guide her around the Village.

She, of course, knew where everything was already, but it was interesting to see things through her new eyes! The grass was scraggly and muddy underfoot, but she'd never walked barefoot through the village before, so even the feel of the place was different. The smell, too; it was all fishy! Everything seemed to reek of fish!

Frigma decided to head over to the docks and watch while the Vikings prepared one of their fishing boats. She'd done that before, as a human, and for some reason, it really calmed her down. But she was halted halfway there by the sight of two children.

She knew these children; they were Snotlout's kids. Snotlout had married pretty young, to a girl who arrived in Berk not long ago with some other Vikings, claiming they had nowhere to go when their Village was attacked by an enemy tribe. Stoick had welcomed them into Berk, and Snotlout was immediately smitten. The girl's name was Elli Halsvard, and she was the meanest Vikings Frigma had ever met. She was nasty and had said terrible things to Frigma's face as a human, and always claimed innocence when confronted. She was the worst kind of woman; there were words for people like her, but Frigma was not angry enough at the moment to repeat them. But oh, they were terrible words.

The children though, in spite of their parents, were actually quite pleasant. Frigma had been the one to bandage the older one, Gilda's arm. Gilda was the spitting image of her mother, dark-haired, brown-eyes, short but loud. She was kind to Frigma though, even though Frigma knew her parents probably pumped her head full of mean things about her. Gilda was only seven years old and STILL had more courtesy than her parents! The younger one, Spitlout (after his father), was kind too, but also unabashedly blunt. He was four and said EXACTLY what was on his mind. But even so, what he said to Frigma was never malicious. He at least was polite.

The two were wrestling over something in their front yard, laughing and kicking and trying to get whatever it was they were fighting over. It seemed like Spitlout was winning.

It really was a heartwarming sight, children playing together; but it was bittersweet. As Frigma felt happy for the small humans, she also felt sad because she would never have any of her own. Unless she could find some way to summon Freya again, it was doubtful she'd ever get out of this wretched body! Frigma had always adored children, but had ruled out the thought of getting married and settling down since she was small; who would want such a useless wife? And would her children also be deaf?

Frigma would never want any child to suffer through what she went through; that was why, as much as she desperately loved children, she'd never have any of her own. Maybe it was for the better that she was a dragon now; at least she wouldn't be tempted

Frigma was about to leave, when Gilda shouted: "Look! It's that gray Nightfury!" She turned her head just in time to see both children spring up and dash at her, full speed. They launched themselves into the air and flung themselves onto her back, laughing and shrieking and telling her to fly.

"C'mon, Nightfury!" Gilda said, "Let's fly, we'll be just like Hiccup and Toothless!"

"Yeah!" Spitlout put in, "Juth like Toothleth!" It was cute how he now had a lisp because of his missing front teeth; despite the fact that Gilda had punched them out. He'd seemed happy about it two months ago when it happened, but Frigma couldn't understand why.

Frigma stood firmly on the ground though, but humored the children by stretching her wings and flapping a little. The yelled and laughed and smiled, and Frigma felt so happy to be playing with kids! And such cute ones at that!

"Fly Nightfury, fly!" And, just to play along, Frigma started jumping around, too. This seemed to appease the children, but just then, Elli walked up, a half-basin of water in her arms, and shrieked. Oh no, this was going to be bad, Frigma could just tell. She stopped running around and let her ears fly flat.

"What are you doing to my Children!" Elli shouted, dropping the basin and running over.

"Mom, we were playing!" Gilda said, sensing that her mother was going to get angry if there was no explanation. "We thought we could be like-" but she was cut off as Elli grabbed her daughter and swung her off of Frigma's back, then did the same for her son. She herded them back towards the house, saying: "Don't you ever go near dragons like that! Those types are nothing but Pure-breed trouble!" It offended Frigma that Elli had referred to as 'Those types' like all Nightfuries were so bad! But the worst was yet to come. As soon as the disappointed children were locked in the house, Elli stomped back to Frigma, a fire in her eyes. Frigma should have run, but hadn't thought Elli would really hurt her.

Elli, in fact, did hurt her. She raised a hand before Frigma could react and brought it down hard on her sensitive nose. So hard, in fact, Frigma's teeth knocked together in her mouth and she accidentally bit down on her tongue. Elli ignored Frigma's howl of pain and started her shouting again.

"You stupid creature! How dare you try and hurt my children! I knew you were trouble, just like that other one!"

**(Page Break)**

There was only so much a Nightfury could take of Fishlegs' endless banter. After about ten minutes of listening to the garble of human words, Toothless decided he was hungry, and got up to leave. It didn't seem to bother Fishlegs, and Toothless made his way down to the docks to see if any over-night fishing boats had returned.

As he walked, he thought he could hear someone shouting, and not just regular Viking shouting, but real, angry shouting. And it sounded like a woman. And not just any woman, either; it was Elli. Toothless despised Elli with a passion; she was mean and cold-hearted and had this weird vendetta against him. He didn't know why; he'd never even spent time with the woman, why would she be so hostile towards him? (Toothless looked back at this incident when he was considerably older and recognized the irony of his thoughts)

He was glad she wasn't yelling at him for once, but what he heard next wasn't Elli, it was an all-too-familiar howl of pain. Great; the crone had Wingless in her grasps.

Toothless didn't particularly like Wingless. Okay, he REALLY didn't like Wingless, but something in his mind shouted at him to go and see what all the fuss was about. He walked slowly at first, but as the shouting got louder, Toothless walked faster, until he was right around the corner from that vile woman. He peeked around the edge of the house he was hiding behind, and saw Elli standing over Wingless, who was on the ground, holding her muzzle in her hands, letting out whimpers here and there.

"You and that other horrible creature are always causing trouble in Berk, I don't know why that no-good blacksmith boy doesn't train you better!" She shouted. Toothless let out a small growl. However much he hated Wingless, he sure did hate Elli all that much more. Oh, what he wouldn't give for an excuse to knock that woman on her butt! She deserved it.

Frigma's ears were twitching, and as Elli spoke badly of Hiccup, she let out a small growl. However idiotic Hiccup could be, he was a good person, and didn't deserve to be talked about in such a disrespectful way. But she learned that was a big mistake. Elli's eyes widened when Frigma growled, and she stumbled back a bit. Toothless knew what the woman was going to do; Snotlout had done something similar a few weeks ago. Elli ran for the other side of the house, where all the family's weapons were (for the safety of the children) and Toothless sprang out of his hiding place.

He bounded over to Frigma, who, stupidly, was still cowering on the ground.

"_Get up, stupid!"_ he thought, shoving her side with his nose. "_If you're not smart enough to run, then at least fight back!" _Frigma recoiled from his touch, but didn't have time to think, as Elli came back out, wide eyed and crazy, brandishing one of Snotlout's favorite axes. Toothless raised his wings and lashed his tail. His teeth were bared again, and he let out a warning growl.

"_Stay away from me, you crazy old bat!"_ he thought, shoving Frigma away with a back leg. "_Get out of my, you excuse of a Nightfury! Let the REAL dragons take care of these nuisances."_

Frigma didn't need an excuse to leave; as soon as Toothless took over the situation, she was out of there! No way was she going up against a crazy woman with an axe! She sprinted all the way to the forge, and without any hesitation, barged right into Hiccup's back room. Astrid was asleep on Hiccup's chair, and Hiccup was trying to re-organize all his papers, which seemed impossible. As Frigma busted through the door, Hiccup whipped around and glared at her, pointing to Astrid and then making the 'shush' sign, but Astrid didn't wake.

Frigma grabbed Hiccup's sleeve in her mouth and tugged. This was one of those times she desperately wanted to speak! Hiccup needed to get back to Toothless; what of he was hurt? An injured Toothless would be ten times meaner than a healthy one, and Frigma did NOT want that! But Hiccup didn't seem to understand.

"What?" he whispered irritably. "I thought I told you to go out and entertain yourself? Astrid's had a long day and I was just about to take her-" Frigma pulled on his sleeve again, but he just ripped it out of her jaws. "No! Leave me alone, Wingless. You do understand, don't you?"

_Oh, for the love of- you're so – UGG!" _Frigma let go of Hiccup's sleeve, only to scamper to the wooden wall, and, very clumsily and almost unreadibly, scribbled the words 'Trouble' and 'Tooth'. She waited as Hiccup deciphered her words, and then it seemed to click.

"What are we waiting for! Where is he?"

**(Page Break)**

Toothless sat by the fire, nursing the slash-wound on his side. Stupid Elli, wielding that stupid axe and giving him this stupid injury. He'd be out of commission for at least a week! He wouldn't be able to even MOVE for the next few days! He was burning up inside just thinking about it; but what could he do? At least he left Elli in worse condition than she had him. Oh, Hiccup was upset about that, but Toothless wasn't.

Frigma sat not far away, analyzing the cut on Toothless's side. It was long, but not deep. It probably hurt badly, but it would heal soon. Though, she couldn't help feeling it was her fault Toothless got hurt. It WAS her that was stupid enough to associate herself with the children of Elli, but there was one thing Frigma couldn't figure out: why had he jumped in and saved her? She knew, from past experiences and seeing it happen right before her eyes, that Elli didn't like Toothless, and Toothless didn't like her, but, why today? Why had he been there to save her today?

Frigma let out a sigh and looked down at the fish in front of her. Hiccup had cooked it just the way she liked it, but she couldn't eat it. Next to the fish, her foot and its own gash were lying. She studied the cut; sort of like Toothless' but smaller in scale. Great. She was feeling guilty. For someone she didn't even like!

Before she could change her mind about it, she stood up and picked up her fish. Well, she wasn't going to eat it, so someone should. And who better than someone who just saved her a great deal of pain?

Toothless looked up as Wingless dropped the fish in front of him. Admittedly, he was starving and one fish had not been enough for dinner, but he didn't want her pity. He hadn't fought with Elli for her, not by a long-shot!

But…food was food. So Frigma went back to sulking and Toothless ate the peace-offering.

"_Fine, little gray mutt," _he thought as he gnawed on the bones, "_But don't be expecting some little play-mate. Just because we make peace doesn't mean I have to like you."_


	15. Chapter 15: Snow Birds

**This story is taking so looong! I try to make it descriptive and not to short, but then it ends up this huge long monster of a fanfic! Ugg, expect time-skips, people! **

**Chapter Fifteen: Snow Birds**

Who knew one month could drag out to be so long?

Certainly not Toothless. It had already been four weeks since he and Wingless had agreed upon their cease-fire, and Toothless was SO bored! It had actually been fun to chase that female around, at least it was something to do! Now that he had to be nice to her, there was nothing to do anymore!

That didn't mean they were friends, though, they just tolerated each other. Barely. Wingless was in the habit of waking up and sitting in front of the house to wait for Astrid. Toothless didn't know why, but every morning he'd hear her nose the door open and the subsequent thump as she sat down in the dust outside. Sometimes he'd peek his head out and see her scratching lines into the ground; he knew that Hiccup understood the lines, but they looked like scribbles to Toothless. And it didn't matter if it was raining or sunny, Wingless would dutifully 'guard' the house, not leaving until Astrid commanded her to follow.

Toothless would always snort and roll his eyes; what was there to guard? Dragons were no threat, people were no threat, regular animals were no threat, and there were just no threats!

But one day, something different happened. Toothless woke up, as usual, just as Wingless stepped outside. The air was colder than it had been the day before, and the light coming in from the door was much brighter than he was used to. Toothless stood and stretched, and poked his head outside. To his delight, it had snowed overnight, and the ground and everything else in Berk was covered in maybe five inches of fluffy white snow! Toothless adored snow; especially when it was falling from the sky! When he was wild, he hated it, but since he'd come to stay with Hiccup he'd learned that it wasn't all bad, and even Hiccup liked to play in it on occasion.

But Toothless almost burst out laughing when he saw Wingless hopping around in the snow! She was acting like a hatchling who'd never seen the stuff before, prancing around and kicking up big piles of snow! And even when she knew Toothless was there, it didn't cause her to stop and conduct herself in a more dignified way; she just kept on playing!

If there was one thing Toothless did not understand about Wingless, it was her ability to move around and not knock anything over! His own wings were always hitting people and causing things to fall off shelves, and his tail would always trip everyone up! And he couldn't even count how many times he'd been yelled at for stepping on some one's foot! But Wingless was pretty graceful for a Nightfury; at least on the ground. Oh, sure, at first she was clumsy, her tail even tripped her up a few times, but her wings were never really a problem, and the only time she caused major damage due to her clumsiness was when she'd first appeared in the village and had been chased by the mob of Vikings.

But now, she moved around as if walking on air, her feet landed very lightly, and her tail swished around right behind her, never disrupting anything around her. Her wings were always folded up, so they didn't cause any trouble, but now they were about half-way extended and they STILL weren't a burden! Toothless marveled at how coordinated she must have been.

He shook his head and stepped out into the cold morning air. Graceful or not, she was still the same annoying Wingless. He let out an irritated 'Rrrrhhhg' to let her know he was there, and sat himself down on the doorstep. He was NOT going to join in her little game (however much he wanted to). She needed to know he was still not just her little playmate, he was the most well-respected and fearsome dragon in Berk! And as much as he loved the snow, if he wanted to stay dignified, he had to give up playing in it. All dragons made sacrifices sometimes, this would just be one of his.

But Wingless had other plans. As soon as Toothless vocalized, she trotted over, a gleam in her eye, and sat down near him. Toothless, being the stubborn grouch he was, scooted farther away from Wingless. And, Wingless, being the insufferable annoyance she was, scooted closer again.

"_What do you want?"_ he thought, a growl accompanying his sour thoughts. "_I will not be-"_ But his internal monologue was interrupted as Wingless scooped up some snow with her tail-fins and threw it at Toothless's head. Toothless was not only surprised by the slushy assault, but also infuriated. He jumped to his feet and glared at the other Nightfury, who was wearing a smirk, and jumped up too. But her stance was not as hostile as Toothless'; her head was bowed and her haunches were in the air; the standard 'Let's play' pose that Toothless had used countless times on Hiccup.

"_How dare you!"_ Toothless howled inwardly, scraping away the snow near his feet so he could get a better gold on the ground. "_I hope you're willing to pay for that, you mongrel!"_

**(Page Break)**

Frigma's eyes twinkled. Yes! She'd finally done it; she'd finally gotten Toothless to loosen up! After one long month of him barely acknowledging her existence, he was finally going to play with her!

You see, being a Nightfury was not all fun and games. As a dragon, you aren't expected to do much else besides work, and work was no fun! It usually involved heavy-lifting, and Frigma just didn't have the knees for that sort of thing. Besides work, a dragon could either A) Eat, B) Sleep or C) play. Obviously, Frigma wanted to choose C, but, it seemed Toothless had carved out quite the niche for himself. Whenever Frigma approached any other dragon, they would skitter away from her, or else roar at her and try to scare her off. She'd seen them do this to Toothless, too, and she concluded that Toothless must have been such an insufferable brat to the other dragons, none of them wanted anything to do with him or any other Nightfuries! And humans were much too fragile to play with, and the ones who weren't fragile didn't want to play anyway. So the only other playmate in the village was….you guessed it, the dragon who only barely tolerated her.

Frigma did know that what Toothless was displaying wasn't playfulness, it was hostility. He didn't like having snow thrown at him, and he was probably still irritated at her for taking up Hiccup's time, but, she was so desperately bored, she was willing to stoop to these levels to get his attention.

She pulled her lips up into a copy of Toothless' famed smile, and that really seemed to get im going. Obviously, he didn't like others stealing his gimmicks, and as soon as she'd done it, he launched up into the air to pounce.

Frigma had purposefully chosen a day when there was snow on the ground to do this, though, because as he pushed of the ground, Toothless' feet slipped in the slush and he hit the ground with a muffled THUMP! Stifling a chortle, she jumped to the side and swished her tail playfully. Even if he was trying to attack, she was still having more fun that working!

**(Page Break)**

Toothless spit snow out and raised his head defiantly. Oh, she was going to get it, all right! No one humiliated Toothless and lived to tell the tale! He scrambled to his feet and charged her, but she just leaped away, throwing up more snow.

This clumsy sort of dance kept up for a while, Toothless' anger growing and Wingless' amusement increasing as a result. But after the sixth time Toothless' was sent sprawling in the snow, something in his head just clicked. He knew EXACTLY how to get back at Wingless. Not bothering to get up, he started to whine and lick his paw.

Toothless knew that Wingless couldn't help but worry over every little thing that happened to Astrid. After the big blow-up four weeks ago, Wingless hadn't left Astrid's side, and whenever any sort of anger was directed at the Viking, the obedient Nightfury would rush to her side and defend her friend. And when Astrid had fallen off the roof two and a half weeks ago, Wingless had rushed around the village, gathering anything Astrid requested. She hadn't left the bedside until Astrid was deemed fit to walk around again. So Toothless' plan was simple: act like he was hurt, and when Wingless came over to act like a mother duck, he'd pounce.

And just like he'd predicted, Wingless immediately stopped her prancing and came over to see what the matter was. Just as she dipped her head to sniff the foot Toothless was cradling, POW! He burst up and caught the poor female off guard! She went flying and landed in a snow drift not far away, wings and legs tangled up with each other. Toothless felt momentarily panicked; what if she was hurt? Not that he cared much about her, but he knew she was some sort of gem to Hiccup and Astrid, and boy would they be mad if she was injured! He couldn't even imagine the punishment!

Wingless let out a low whine, and then, slowly, picked herself up and hauled herself out of the drift. Her wings were still tangled, but otherwise, she seemed fine. Oh, thank Odin! Toothless had escaped trouble yet again! He really was great!

But he'd let his guard down as he praised himself, and Wingless ran at him at full speed, her head colliding with his side and sending him flying. He landed on his back, but it didn't hurt.

"_Oh, so you want to play that, do you?"_ he thought, still angry, but not quite as much as before. No, it really wasn't anger, more like competitiveness. He wanted to beat Wingless in this little snow battle not because he was angry (at least not anymore) but just because he wanted to win. Toothless NEVER lost.

He lowered his front half down, his haunches still in the air, and stretched his wings. Wingless wasn't going to win this time; he would make sure of it! He just had to be careful not to hurt her TOO badly, if he did, Hiccup was bound to notice. Wingless answered his unspoken challenge with another smirk. The battle was on!

**(Page Break)**

Hiccup opened the front door to see what all the noise was about. He'd been woken up by the sounds of a fight, and was afraid it was the two Nightfuries again! After a month of peace, they were due for a spat, but what he saw outside of his house was something he hadn't expected.

"Astrid, hey Astrid!" he called, waking his wife and waving her over. "You gatta see this!" Astrid grumbled all the way to the door, unhappy that she had to get up so early.

"What?" she snapped at Hiccup, before he grabbed her arm and dragged her over to the open door.

"Look!" he commanded, pointing to the two dragons. Both Viking stared as two of Berks most violent dragons, who's previously been enemies, were tumbling and playing with each other in the freshly fallen snow. Both mouths hung open.

"That's….it's….impossible!" Astrid said, rubbing her eyes and trying to get the sleep out of them. "They hated each other last night! What happened?"

"Well, Toothless does love the snow." Hiccup guessed, shrugging. "Maybe ALL Nightfuries love the snow."


	16. Chapter 16: First NearDeath, Now This!

**Almost half-way there! And another time skip!**

**Double post day! It might even turn into a triple post day! This chapter was originally longer, with more things happening after the end, but I decided to break some stuff off and put it in chapter seventeen. 17 is not long enough yet, so depending on how long I can work on it today, It might go up tomorrow. I'll just have to see.**

**Chapter Sixteen: First Near-Death, and Now This!**

"Don't be such a chicken! You knew we were going to do this today; Wingless, you are pathetic!" Astrid took hold of her dragons left wing and started trying to yank the giant heap of scales out from behind the boulder it had taken refuge behind. Wingless let out a terrified yelp and resisted all that more velhelmetly. If there was one thing Astrid didn't understand, it was Wingless' refusal to fly. Toothless liked to fly, so why didn't she?

Astrid had warned the scaredy-cat yesterday of her intentions, and Wingless was STILL acting like a baby! Letting the dragons wing flop to the ground, Astrid pulled from her pocket a clump of what looked like regular grass. She held it above Wingless' head.

"Look what I have," she said in a sing-song voice, trying to coax her Nightfury out into the open. "Don't tell me you can resist this stuff; not even Toothless can!" Hiccup had given the dragon-grass to Astrid a few hours ago, telling her to use it if Wingless insisted on being stubborn, but, the grass that could reduce a Nightmare to a puddle of purring scales seemed to have no affect on the pale Nightfury. Wingless didn't even look up. "Oh, come ON!"

Astrid threw the grass on the ground and started stomping around, screeching and cursing. "You have got to be the WIMPIEST dragon I have ever met!" she yelled, throwing her hands in the air. "I even let you wait 'till there's a nice day, which don't come around too often in the winter, and you REFUSE to even get up! UGG!" Still, the yelling didn't have any effect on the dragon. Wingless was still curled in a ball behind the boulder, her tail trembling.

Astrid slumped against a near-by tree and let out a ragged sigh. So much for flying practice, she thought dismally. She just wanted to fly with Hiccup, was that too much to ask?

"You know, I haven't flown since Brute…" she stated quietly, "…since Brute was healthy." She hadn't really been talking to her dragon, but as soon as Brute was mentioned, Wingless raised her head and let out a whine. "Yeah, yeah, I know you're scared." Astrid said, blowing her bangs out of her face. "Don't you think climbing onto a dragon who's never used her wings before is scary? I'm terrified! But I…" Wingless waited for the rest of the sentence, but Astrid was searching for the right words. "I just want to fly again. I get so jealous when Hiccup and Toothless go off together! He invites me, but it's still not the same." This seemed to have piqued Wingless' interest, and the dragon uncurled herself slightly. Astrid didn't notice, though; she was staring at her knees, which were tucked up under her chin. "Hiccup and Toothless have this sort of bond and I…I feel like such a third wheel flying with them! Ugg, that sounds so wrong but it's the only way I can describe it!"

Wingless let out a huff of air and tipped her head to the side. Astrid shifted her eyes to stare at the dragon, and everything was still for a moment, before Wingless started to scrabble something in the snow.

It would have meant nothing if Wingless wasn't the way she was; nobody would think twice if a regular dragon started scribbling in the dirt; but Wingless wasn't just any regular dragon. Astrid hoisted herself to her feet and walked over to see what the Nightfury had scribbled. It was messy, but clearly written in the snow were the words "Wife" and "Husband".

"I know what you're thinking, and don't pull that crap with me!" Astrid snapped, her hands clenching into fists. "'Oh, Astrid, he's your husband! You have the right to go everywhere with him'" she said in a squeaky voice and a fake smile. "Well, just because I CAN fly with them doesn't mean I want to! Can't a girl want to fly with her own dragon? Why is that so hard a request?"

Wingless gave her a weary glance, before staring at her own feet again. Fed up, Astrid shook her head and started walking away.

"I knew today was going to be bad, why didn't I just stay in bed?" But before she'd gotten too far away, Wingless, reluctantly, stood up and let out a bark to get the Viking's attention. When Astrid looked back at Wingless, the dragon was giving her a stare that could only mean "I'll do it, but I won't like it!"

**(Page Break)**

"It's not hard at all!" Hiccup enthused, scratching Frigma's ear. He was seated on Toothless' back, and Astrid on hers. He and Toothless had flown down to the cliff above the docks on Astrid's request to oversee Frigma's first flight. But the only one who didn't seem happy about this was Frigma herself. She KNEW this was going to end badly; the sky was gray and it was windy, when Astrid had said 'Good Day' she'd meant that there wasn't a blizzard! But everything else was crappy, even the water was choppy!

Frigma swallowed hard, trying not to think about what would happen if she couldn't stay aloft and plummeted into that water. She tried not to think about a lot of things, but it didn't really help; she still thought. What if Astrid fell off her back and she couldn't catch her? What if she hit the cliff and Astrid was crushed? What if….all the terrible scenarios that played out in Frigma's head were giving her such a headache! She felt sick to her stomach, but she couldn't back out; not after that schpeel by Astrid. She'd just have to do this; but Astrid better not ask any more from her for a while! One near-death experience per season was enough for this Nightfury!

"Okay, Astrid, don't push her to go too fast, we're going to have to take this really slow. I've never really trained a dragon to fly before, so this is still sort of new to me too…" Oh great! Even the trainer wasn't sure about this! Frigma was trembling so hard she thought the whole Village could hear her teeth chattering.

Toothless slapped Frigma on the shoulder with his tail to get her attention, and then gave her a smirk. She knew what he was trying to do; he was going to try and make this some sort of challenge. Well, he could keep his stupid competitiveness to himself, she would already be risking life and limb here!

"Hiccup, I've flown before," Astrid said, raising an eyebrow at him. "And besides, I trust Wingless. She's smart enough to figure out our language, I think she can handle this."

"_Oh, you're putting your faith in the wrong person!"_ Frigma thought, shuffling her front feet.

"I know, I know," Hiccup replied, a look of concern shadowing his face, "but that was a while ago, and I just-"but Astrid had him by the lips before he could finish his worrying. The kiss flew right over Toothless' head, but Frigma couldn't help but feel awkward. "_Ugg, compared to this, flying sounds heavenly!"_

"Don't worry so much," Astrid said, _finally_ pulling away from the kiss. Hiccup could no longer form coherent words, so, taking this as her cue, Astrid patted Frigma's head and said: "Okay, Wingless, I guess this is do or die,"

"RRRRhhhh," Frigma whined, kneading the ground with her feet. She didn't like that expression, door die; it felt too close to the truth. But she took a few steps forward anyway. She was about ten feet from the edge of the cliff, enough for one good bound, and then she'd have to fly. Shakily, she unfolded her wings and stretched them out to either side of her.

"_Okay, Frigma, don't think about your painfully ironic name right now; just flap, okay? Flap and don't fall!"_

"Brrrhhrrr" Toothless warbled behind her. Wingless peered over her shoulder just in time to see the bigger Nightfury leap into the sky and start beating his wings. HE made it look so easy, but Frigma knew it wouldn't be.

"C'mon, their leaving us behind." Astrid said, urging her forward. "_I'm taking my own sweet time!"_ Frigma thought back, twitching her ears. Okay, this was it. Taking a giant breath and holding it, Frigma bounded forwards and leapt off the cliff, wings extended.

One thing that Frigma knew nothing about was the wind. She knew it blew, and that was about it. But what she hadn't realized was where it came from: the ocean. The waves were what created the wind, and with such choppy water, the waves were creating lots of wind, and said wind was what filled Frigma's outstretched wings and propelled her forward. Her eyes were squeezed shut, but when she sensed she wasn't falling, she squinted one open.

To her amazement, she was still airborne! And about 100 feet above the water, too! This was amazing! But the hard part hadn't even reared its head yet. The wind didn't last for long, and as the tides settled momentarily, Frigma was forced to flap to keep her aloft. Flapping was NOT easy, especially since she was so heavy and Astrid was sitting on her back. But miraculously, she still wasn't falling! Quite the opposite: she was going up!

"Good!" Hiccup called, bringing Toothless right up next to her and Astrid. "Now try turning! Use your tail-fin!"

Frigma had human instinct: she knew when to jump away from a fire (though she no longer needed that one) and she knew when to come in from the rain, and she automatically held her breath when she was under water, but what she lacked was dragon instincts. She shifted her tail-fin, but it did not turn her in the right direction, and she ended up knocking into Hiccup and Toothless, sending them careening to the side and sending herself and Astrid to the opposite side.

"_No, NO!" _she thought, trying to regain her balance, "_keep flapping!"_

"Um, try the other way!" Hiccup said, bringing Toothless back up. "You turn the direction opposite the fin you move!" That would have been helpful information to tell Frigma BEFORE she was airborne! But she did what she was told, and just like Hiccup said, Frigma jerked in the right direction. Looking up, Frigma saw that Astrid looked like she was hanging on for dear life.

"_Sorry,"_ she thought, "_I'll get better at those!"_

**(Page Break)**

"I think she did pretty good today," Hiccup said to Astrid. Both were sitting in the Great Hall, next to a few of their friends. "She's still a bit shaky on the turns, but before you know it, she'll be doing barrel rolls like a pro!" At this Astrid spit out the ale she was drinking and eyed Hiccup incredulously.

"I HOPE that was a joke," she said, rubbing her temples. "I've don't think I've ever been so scared I was going to die in my life!" Hiccup laughed nervously at this.

"Not even when we battled the queen?"

"At least that would have been a cool death," Astrid sighed, putting her mug down.

"And you call me a child-OUCH!"

Frigma watched through the open door of the Great Hall as Astrid punched Hiccup in the arm. Dragons weren't allowed inside, unfortunately, and she was stuck out here with Toothless. Not like it was a particularly bad thing; she didn't mind Toothless so much, she just hated to be excluded from things she was used to doing as a Human.

Sitting down and letting out a huff, she batted her fish around between her feet. She didn't want to eat; her insides still felt like jelly from the flight. Her nose also hurt, from the clumsy landing and subsequent crash, head-first, into a tree-stump. Well, the fly had been a success, but she still didn't want to do it again.

Unfortunately, Astrid had declared, as she'd jumped off Frigma's back, that she intended to practice every day, until she was as good as Toothless and Hiccup. And Frigma had the feeling that would take a LONG time.

She jumped when Toothless poked her shoulder with his foot.

"Rrrhhh?" he inquired, eyes flicking from her to the fish she wasn't going to eat. With a sigh, she shoved the fish towards him and watched as he scarfed it down. How lucky he was to be born knowing how to fly. Why was it just so damn hard for Frigma!

Toothless wasn't a master at reading expressions (just Hiccup's) but he knew that there was something bothering Wingless. His ears went up as he studied her face, and he barked. Oh, it was probably nothing, he thought, and stood up to leave. Hiccup would be done with dinner soon, and that meant Toothless only had a few precious minutes to scratch up the doorframe like he liked to! He started off towards the house, but stopped. Something didn't feel right; it felt like he had forgotten to do something. Eaten the fish, yes, he'd done that, made sure Hiccup wasn't in mortal peril, that was done too….what else was there to do?

But he knew what it was, and with a whine, he looked over his shoulder at the somber-looking Wingless. Oh no, what were his feet doing? Why was he walking back? He only had a few minutes to scratch the door frame, why was he wasting it caring about the female who he really didn't like? No, wait, that wasn't right either. Did he really not like Wingless? I mean, what was wrong with her? Toothless couldn't even remember WHY he had hated her so much; it's not like Hiccup payed her all that much attention anymore. Two months ago, she was all he ever wanted to go see, but now….it was only Astrid who acted like she was the greatest dragon in Berk. So that couldn't be the reason….

Toothless sat down next to Wingless and brushed his tail against her side. When she shifted her eyes to look at him, he made a noise in his through, not quite a purr, but something close. Wingless seemed a bit weary, but just shrugged. Toothless didn't know what to do after that. He wasn't good at this sort of thing, dragons didn't really make friends in the wild. But, he figured, what had worked for Hiccup probably would work on Wingless, and so he did what he'd done for his best friend.

Frigma was repulsed as Toothless hacked up the fish he'd just swallowed. What was he doing! Had he just come back to throw up? She jumped up and away from him and let out a hiss.

Toothless didn't look like he thought anything was wrong, and sat down. The fish he'd hacked up was disgusting looking; it was only half-eaten and was covered in what Frigma could only guess was spit and bile. She almost gagged! Toothless cocked his head to the side and barked.

"_What?"_ Frigma thought, looking at him like he was the stupidest thing she'd ever encountered (which was not far from the truth)

"RRaauurrrhh" Toothless vocalized, nudging the fish closer to her.

"_Oh no,"_ Frigma thought, wrinkling her nose. "_He doesn't want me to….oh, Gross!" _she shook her head back and forth, telling him that she would never, in a million years, touch that slimy fish, let alone eat it! But Toothless was persistent, and, seeing as she wouldn't go to the fish, he picked it up in his mouth and brought it to her. Frigma hissed again, but was backed up against the door to the Great Hall, and couldn't get away. "_Don't you touch me with that thing…!" _she thought, more like internally begged. But Toothless couldn't read her thoughts, and dropped the fish right at her feet. He swished his tail and stared at her wide-eyed and innocently.

Frigma whimpered and pushed the fish away, but Toothless only pushed it back.

"_Really? Can't we work this out some other way?_" She had no idea what the stupid dragon was trying to accomplish here, until Hiccup poked his head out of the door.

"Oh!" he squeaked, as Astrid peered out, too. "Look!"

"Ew!" Astrid complained, her eyes squinting up. "That's gross! What is WRONG with your dragon, Hiccup?"

"Shhh, Shhhh! Toothless only does this when he trusts someone enough to want to be friends!" Oh, that was perfect! Frigma looked down at the half-digested fish. That made total sense, a gross slime-covered fish as a friendship token! Frigma lifted her head and fixed Hiccup with one of her 'You've got to be joking,' stares. His smile grew and laughed.

"He wants you to eat it!" he said, which was the exact answer Frigma had feared. No, no way, nuh-uh! She was not going to-

But before she could continue her string of rejections, Toothless let out a whimper and his ears went down. Oh no, he wasn't trying the-

"_NOO!"_ It was impossible for any female to resist the puppy-eyes! They were just so cute, on any species it seemed! There was only one thing Frigma could do to make Toothless stop with the eyes!

With a groan, she dipped her head and, holding her breath so she wouldn't taste it, took a bite of the fish. Hiccup let out a cheer and Astrid almost wretched, while Toothless got up and stretched. He was happy, or at least contented, that she had accepted the terms of friendship, but he was still a little miffed that he'd missed his only chance to scratch the door-frame until tomorrow's dinner!


	17. Chapter 17: Mirrors

**We're already at the end of winter! Arg, damn me and my time skips! Sorry people, but I do have a life, and I can't get on with it until this monster of a story is at least half-way done! Sorry for the triple-post day, but it's Sunday, what do you expect?**

**Fluff alert! Short and fluffy chapter, no real meaning, and super duper cheesy!**

**Chapter Seventeen: Mirrors**

Astrid stood in front of the mirror, adjusting her headband and flipping her bangs out of her eyes. She wished Hiccup would buy a mirror; she hated trumping up to her Mother's house to use her old one. Her Mother loved it when Astrid did come, though, and Astrid had been meaning to pay a visit.

"Honey, you really should cut those bangs off," her Mother, Valla, commented as Astrid kept playing with her hair. "Ever since you were a child, I've wanted to cut them off; they're always in your face!"

"Mother," Astrid sighed, turning her attention from the reflective glass to the aged woman standing behind her. "I'm 25, for Thor's sake! I can do what I like with my bangs."

"I know it," Valla said, sitting down on the stool across from her daughter. "And your hair is beautiful, but…"

"But it would be more beautiful," Astrid finished sarcastically, reciting the words her Mother had used so long ago, "If you'd just take my advice. Yeah, I get it. But I like my bangs, and so does Hiccup."

"Oh, you're always going on about Hiccup!" Valla said, smiling. "Scrawny little thing, isn't he?"

"Not so scrawny," Astrid said defensively, turning back to the mirror and re-braiding her hair for the third time. "He's got muscle, it's just-"

"Spare me the details, kid," Valla interrupted, holding her hand up. "Fine, not scrawny, just sort of-"

"And please don't say wimpy, Mother,"

"What? My adjectives not good enough?"

"No! How about trying 'Handsome' or 'Brave' or 'Sweet' or 'Chivalrous'? You are always criticizing the poor guy, and he's not as bad as you make him out to be!" This was an argument that Astrid had had many times over with her Mother, but it wasn't a true argument. It was always good natured; Valla really did like Hiccup. He balanced out Astrid perfectly, in her opinion, and was the only boy who had ever mellowed out her high-strung daughter.

"Okay, okay. So you and Mr. Man been getting' along good then? Treating you right? He's been payin' you enough attention, hasn't he? I always see him in the forge, is he ever home?"

"He's always home, Mother! Never stays out late, always says good bye in the morning, he really is perfect, you know. You don't have to keep trying to prove me wrong; it's not ganna happen." Astrid smiled into the mirror, running her hands through her hair.

"If he's so perfect, why haven't you come around to tell me you're having kids?" Valla sucked her lower lip in and stomped her foot on the ground. "I'm getting old! I can't wait forever for grandkids! And yer Father's on his last leg; literally!"

"Mother, we've talked about this,"

"Not enough! I never understood you, girlie. Never played with dolls, never took interest in animals, didn't even care that the sheep we kept had lambs! You and your insatiable need to be as good as the boys; well, there was always something you could do better than any boy in Berk, and that was be a Mother! And yet, look at you!" Valla reached around her and grabbed her walking stick, only to poke her daughter's flat stomach with it. "There should be a BABY in there!"

Astrid hated when her Mother brought this up. There WAS a reason Astrid hadn't wanted kids, and as much as her Mother said otherwise, Astrid never thought she'd be a good Mother. She wasn't very good with the students at the dragon training sessions, she wasn't good with hatchlings, she wasn't even that good with Wingless! And Brute….she didn't like to think about it. She never wanted what had happened to Brute to happen to anything else she took care of.

"I'm still young," Astrid said after a short pause. "I still have years of time left. Maybe I'll have kids then." But Astrid was almost positive her opinion wouldn't change, no matter how much time passed. After all those years of putting on the tough and strong act, she couldn't just let all that melt away. Even just crying to Hiccup had made her feel like a wimpy puddle of pity! How could someone who couldn't even cry be a good Mother?

"What about Hiccup? Doesn't he want kids?"

"Oh, sure, but he said he can wait. And if he can wait," Astrid looked over her shoulder at her Mother, giving her a hard stare, "So can you." And with that, the conversation was closed.

A few minutes of uncomfortable silence followed, in which Valla fiddled with the rings on her fingers and Astrid tied her hair up in its usual braid. But, not liking the quiet, she broke it not long after it started.

"I've been thinking about cutting my hair short," she stated, playing with a curly cue air that refused to stay in the braid.

"Good, good! And while you're at it, why don't you cut those bangs?"

"Mother!"

**(Page Break)**

* * *

Astrid walked back up to the house, her head still buzzing with what her Mother had said.

'_Hiccup IS perfect,'_ she thought, kicking up snow as she walked. '_And I'm sure he'd be great with kids, but,'_ but she just wasn't ready. She was so terrified that she'd become a bad Mother, that she was willing to just throw the whole idea away. It was better not to be a Mother, in her opinion, than to be a bad one. It wasn't an ideal situation, but it would have to do, for now.

Under her arm, Astrid carried her Mother's old mirror. She'd convinced Valla to let her borrow it for a few days, since her house was void of one.

"Finally, I'll be able to prevent myself from looking horrible every day!" she hummed to herself. Astrid was probably one of the only Vikings in Berk who DIDN'T like looking like a troll. "I don't need my looks to scare things off." She praised herself, smirking. "I've got my charming Viking demeanor to do that!"

"RRhhhh," Astrid looked down to see Wingless, coming seemingly from nowhere and falling into step at her right side.

"I'll take that as a compliment," Astrid said, resting her free hand on Wingless' head.

* * *

Frigma just shook her head.

"_You are vain, my friend._" She thought, swishing her tail. As a human, Frigma had never considered herself 'pretty'. But, now that she thought about it, compared to Astrid, she probably wasn't ugly, at least. She had owned a mirror, and had liked to look at herself in it and do her hair in the mornings, but, in her opinion, her face looked very plain. Cheeks were medium height, hair was a little wavy and she kept it short, nose was a little too big and a little too round, ears stuck out (oh, the irony). The only really striking thing about her human face had been her eyes, which she hadn't really even begun to notice until she was a dragon. But compared to most women in the Village, she probably was some-what pretty.

It was a shame, she thought, twitching her ears.

"_When I track down that goddess and make her turn me back, I'll never call myself plain again."_

* * *

"What are you thinking about?" Astrid asked, looking down at Wingless. Her dragon always got that look in her eye when she was thinking about something important. Wingless just looked up at her and tipped her head to the side. She barked once, and then shook her head. "Yeah, I know. I wish you could talk, too."

The two continued on until they reached the house, and, with some difficulty, finally shoved the full-length mirror through the door and hauled it up to the second floor. Astrid set it up next to the short dresser, and stepped back.

"Pretty good, eh Wingless?" she asked, smiling. "Didn't even crack it! Mother'll be happy to get this thing back in one piece. It's been in her house since I was little, you know." Wingless just nodded her head politely; she really didn't care at that moment how long it had been in Astrid's old house, she just wanted to catch a glimpse of herself in the mirror! She hadn't seen herself since before becoming a Nightfury, and was anxious to see if her dragon face looked anything like her human face. Astrid, sensing this, stepped aside. "You want to look?"

Wingless stepped forward and peered into the glass. Staring back at her, as she expected, was the face of a dragon, but that face didn't look anything like she'd expected! She'd thought that she'd look like a smaller version of Toothless, but she didn't resemble him at all! Well, maybe a little, but her face shape was different than his; her head was narrower and the little nodes that stuck off of the top were longer, too. Her eyes were probably just as big as his, but since her head was a little smaller, they looked ginormous! And just like everyone kept telling her, her eyes were sea-foam green. Her scales were an ashy-gray, but under each eye were three little dark spots that looked an awful lot like the freckles she'd worn as a human. Her ears were pretty tall, taller than Toothless', and when she backed up to see the rest of her body, her wings also looked pretty small, and she didn't have any spikes running down her spine like Toothless had. She'd always thought all Nightfuries looked the same, but she now realized they were probably more like humans; every Nightfury was an individual, and no two looked the same.

She thought about this. Next time she saw another Nightfury, she'd have to test out this theory.

Astrid laughed as her dragon analyzed itself in the mirror.

"Having fun?" she asked, starting towards the stairs. "Listen, Wingless, I've got to go down to the docks and talk to the dock-master. I want to know when the next merchant ships will be arriving, so if you want to stay here, just don't get in any trouble, okay?" Wingless just snorted to show she had heard, but didn't take her eyes off the mirror. "And that means do NOT break into the honey again. I don't care how good it smells, it has to last until next summer!"

* * *

Toothless stomped through the slush on the ground. He hated this time of year; right before spring but still winter. There was no snow, no rain, no nothing, just cold and slippery slush. And this infernal mud! It caked everything and made it hard to walk! He thought back to a time when he'd been wild, when he'd barely ever set foot on the ground, and would fly for hours on end!

Those days were over, and because Toothless had managed to knock most everything off the shelves in the forge, he'd been sentenced to walk home alone by Hiccup, who had to stay late to put everything back. It wasn't Toothless' fault, though! Gobber had scared him and stepped on his tail! What was he supposed to do?

Toothless grumbled to himself as he approached the house, shouldering the door open and tromping inside. The fire was still going, so Astrid must have come home to stoke it, but he could tell she wasn't there now. Her scent lead out and away from the house. No, it was just him and Wingless.

"Rrrrhhhg," he grumbled, shaking the slush from his feet. "_Where is that pesky female,"_ he thought to himself, climbing the stairs. "_She's usually hoping around here like an annoying little rabbit."_ He didn't mean to be sour, he was just in a bad mood.

Wingless thumped the ground with her tail to get his attention, and waved him over. Toothless was in no mood to play some silly little game, but as soon as he saw what she was looking at, he reluctantly went over and sat himself down beside her.

It was just a mirror. He'd seen one before at the forge, Hiccup kept a little one in his design room. For what purpose, Toothless didn't know, but he'd seen his reflection in it plenty of times. He didn't know why Wingless was getting so excited over a stupid piece of glass.

But when Toothless looked at his reflection next to hers, he was immediately interested. Wingless looked so different compared to him! He'd never really thought about it, but she looked almost nothing like his own reflection. She was smaller, of course, but her head was narrower and she had these little spots on her cheeks. Hiccup had those spots, he remembered. Could dragons have the same kind?

Wingless tipped her head to one side, and her ears brushed Toothless' face. Boy they were long! Toothless studied them for a minute, before realizing that they were longer than his! His ears looked stumpy compared to hers! What was this? He grumbled at her smacked her ears away with a foot.

"_Don't think that makes you better than me."_ He thought with a harrumph. Wingless just shot him a puzzled glance, and made her ears lay flat. "_Your ears may be longer, but mine can hear better!"_

Wingless shook her head and rolled her eyes, which Toothless didn't like. "_Don't do that!"_ he thought, taking a swipe at her nose. He didn't use his claws, but his paw still made contact. Wingless didn't like that, either, and smacked him on the side of his head with her tail.

"_You are asking for it, female,"_ Toothless thought, jumping back giving one of his smiles. "_I thought you would have learned by now, I NEVER lose in a fight!" _Wingless jumped back, too, raising her ears in a silent taunt.

* * *

"I had to borrow it from my Mother!" Astrid said exhaustedly, throwing a weak punch at Hiccup's arm. "All I'm saying is that maybe we should just buy one of our own!"

"And all I'M saying," Hiccup said, rubbing his bruised limb, "Is that I don't make that much money at the forge! And a mirror just seems…superfluous right now." Astrid huffed and crossed her arms, knowing she was beat. Whenever Hiccup brought up money, the argument ended, and he was the victor. She couldn't say anything to that that wouldn't make her seem selfish; she didn't make any money of her own, so who was she to say how they were to spend it? It just stank. She wanted a mirror, and she didn't want to trudge up and down Berk, borrowing it from her Mother!

Hiccup opened the door for his wife, and gave her a weak smile. "Does your Mother even use that one? Maybe she'd just let you keep it?"

"Ugg, you just don't understand! Men never understand!" Astrid walked through the door, only to be greeted by two tails hanging off the second floor landing. Loud snores were issuing from upstairs, and both Vikings looked at each other, before climbing the stairs to investigate. They peeked their heads over the landing, to see their two Nightfuries, passed out from exhaustion from their play-fight.

Toothless was lying on his back, wings spread out underneath him, head tipped back and snoring. His tail was swaying slightly as he slept, and his feet were twitching a bit. Wingless was lying on her stomach across his right leg, pinning it to the ground. One wing was folded up nicely, but the other was sprawled out to her right, resting on Toothless' chest. Her snore just about matched his.

"What the-" Hiccup started, but Astrid shushed him.

"Shhh!" she whispered, "Don't wake them up! If they wake up, they'll probably resume the play-fight that I assume went on, and we'll never get any peace!" Hiccup just nodded, but his eyes caught on something shiny across the room.

"Uh, Astrid? I think you might want to look over there…" he said, pointing to the pile of broken glass next to the over-turned mirror frame. Astrid expression went from happy, to confused, to angry, to enraged, all in one swift motion.

"AAAHHH! WHAT DID YOU TWO DO!" she shouted, waking both dragons up with a start, and hauling herself up onto the landing. Wingless shot up into the air, and landed, and tripped over Toothless, who was still lying disoriented on the ground. Astrid rushed over to the broken mirror, and let out a squeak, before turning her gaze back to the Nightfuries. "You two….OUT! You're both going OUT! NOW! HICCUP!" She pointed at the dragons and glared at her husband. Hiccup reluctantly went over to Toothless and grabbed his saddle-harness, dragging him down the stairs and to the front door. Astrid pushed Wingless down behind them, not as gentle as Hiccup had been, and the smaller Nightfury went rolling down to the first floor, only to knock into Toothless and send them both barreling out the door.

Hiccup stuck his head out the door behind them, and grimaced as Astrid shrieked again.

"Sorry, guys. It's probably better you're out here anyway; Astrid can be pretty scary when-"

"HICCUP!" Hiccup grimaced again, before shutting the door and locking the dragons outside.

Toothless and Wingless sat there for a minute, dumbfounded, and then slowly began the process of untangling their wings. When one dragon pulled one wing free, the others just became more tangled, and it eventually took 15 minutes for them to finally tumble away from each other.

Toothless shook his head and tried to make sense of what had just happened. Hiccup had….thrown him out? He could understand Hiccup throwing Wingless out, she'd been the one to knock the mirror over, but why him? Why was Toothless being punished? It didn't seem fair.

Toothless let out a sigh, and peered over at Wingless. She was sitting to his left, whimpering and drawing her left foot over her ear. Her eyes looked angry, but when she moved her foot away, Toothless saw her left ear was bloodied and splintered. When Astrid had pushed her down the stairs, her ear must have been caught and torn on the word (which Hiccup had never bothered to sand).

"Rrrhhhff," Toothless mumbled, leaning his head in to sniff Wingless' ear. She glared at him and snapped, but Toothless didn't move. "RRrrrhhh." In fact, he moved closer to her, and plopped himself down right by her side. Wingless continued to glare at him (why was she doing that? It wasn't HIS fault they were out there, it was actually hers!) but didn't snap anymore. She just laid her head down on her front legs and snorted. Toothless took this opportunity to bend his head down and lick her injured ear.

Toothless had an extensive memory from when he was a hatchling. He remembered that he was the only egg that had hatched (he even remembered his Mother pushing the other, bum egg, off of the cliff) and he remembered that when he was very small, he scraped his ear on the cliff face when he'd just learned to fly. He couldn't reach his own ear to clean it, so his Mother had cleaned it for him. So, figuring the injury must hurt, and Wingless had no other way of getting the splinters out, Toothless did it for her.

Wingless complained about it, and even tried to walk away a few times, but in the end, she gave up her complaints and just let Toothless do what he wanted. And besides, how else was the wound going to get clean?

* * *

**I purposefully didn't call her Frigma as much in this chapter, to show how her mind is coming to terms with her being a dragon. Just so ya'll know!**


	18. Chapter 18: Apologies and Innuendos

**Sketches I did of Toothless and Wingless before I knew what to do with them! Drawn before the plot was formed, so I referred to 'him' as a guy there, but deep down I really did see her as a girl!: **.com/#/d2ryxyg

**Chapter Eighteen: Apologies and Innuendos**

Astrid had commanded Hiccup not to let the dragons into the house that night. She was so angry, she couldn't think straight, and it didn't even occur to her that it was raining until she looked out the window and saw both Nightfuries huddled underneath a bare-branched tree, shielding themselves from the rain with their wings. They really did look pitiful, but Astrid knew they were doing that on purpose. She wasn't in the mood to see reason, and that they might actually be just as miserable as they looked.

Hiccup was glued to the window, too, but with worry, not pity. The rain had begun not long after he and Astrid had gotten home and discovered the broken mirror, and now it looked like it was going to be an all-out storm! Thunder was crashing over head, and the outside world was occasionally illuminated by giant forks of lightning. Hiccup knew Toothless and Wingless were okay (they couldn't feel cold and weren't scared by lightning) but he was still worried, none the less. I mean, they'd lived in the wild before, right? There were no houses to hide in out in the wild; they'd probably weathered hundreds of storm like this. Probably.

Astrid looked over her shoulder at the pile of glass shards, and sighed. What would she tell her mother? That mirror held so many memories! Astrid had had her first hair-cut in front of that mirror (kicking and screaming the whole time) she'd practiced her dragon-slaying face in front of that mirror, she'd even used that mirror when she was getting ready for her wedding! But now just look at it…broken! It almost made Astrid want to cry! But even more than that, she wanted to throttle those good for nothing dragons!

* * *

Toothless hated the rain. He hadn't hated it when he was wild, but now, having lived under a roof for so long, he was growing soft, and feeling the cold drizzle on his shoulders made him want to cringe. But his hatred of the rain was nothing compared to Wingless' hysteria about the thunder and lightning. For regular dragons, it was just something that kept them from flying; Toothless had definantly faced things far more dangerous or scary than thunder and lightning. But the fact that Wingless jumped and howled in terror every time thunder crashed or lightning struck the ground made Toothless think Wingless had lived a very soft life.

He looked down at all the scars he had on his body; the more recent one from Elli, the sheered-off tail-fin, countless cuts and gashes from fights with other wild dragons, ect ect. But when he studied Wingless' body, the only imperfections on her scales were the little cut on her foot from the first day she'd stayed at the house and now the tear in her ear. Which he still hated for being taller than his. Besides those two things, her scales were shiny and straight, not a single one out of place. Toothless wondered how old she was to be so in shape; she must have been young not to have gotten into any territory spats.

In one sense, dragons were like horses: there was only one way to tell how old they were. Toothless raised a foot and, deciding Wingless probably wouldn't kill him for this, smacked her in the side of the head. Wingless would have retaliated, if not for the thunder that had conveniently rolled in over head, and only opened her mouth to hiss at her companion. That was all Toothless needed, and he peered at her teeth.

Nightfuries have retractable teeth, but don't actually grow the ability to do so until adulthood, which comes at about ten years. And once a Nightfury can retract their teeth, they typically keep them retracted until they need them, for eating or fighting. But Toothless had never seen Wingless' teeth retracted; they were always out, which caused him to think she was still a juvenile. But when he looked at them, he also saw that she had the full set! Juvenile Nightfuries only have 14 teeth on top and 14 on bottom, and grow the last 4 when they hit adulthood, but this Nightfury had all 32! So how old was she!

Wingless didn't know what Toothless was doing; why was he staring at her teeth? He was weird dragon, and she'd given up trying to figure him out long ago, but this was odd, even by his standards.

"_What do you want, you over-grown newt?" _she thought, raising an eyebrow and sighing. Toothless' eyes flicked from her teeth to her eyes, and he shrank back. Toothless wished he could figure this Nightfury out; he'd been alive for more than a hundred years, and never met such a confusing dragon! She was old enough to be an adult, but had barely a scratch on her!

But now that he thought about it, she had seemed pretty tame when Hiccup first approached her; didn't seem like she had any fight instinct in her! And she couldn't fly (at least not well) so maybe she'd come from a place where people and dragons had already made peace? It seemed plausible, but Toothless had flown far and wide since being born, and he'd never encountered any tribe or village of people that accepted him. Quite the opposite, most tried to mount his head on a stick! He thought maybe she'd come from a place farther than he'd ever been, but that would have required years of flying to get from that place to Berk, and Wingless couldn't fly! It made absolutely no sense at all!

Toothless re-adjusted his wings, they were getting sore from being held up to long to shield him from the rain. Did he mention how much he hated the stuff?

* * *

When Hiccup woke up in the morning, he almost was surprised to find Toothless NOT sprawled across the bed, smooshing him and Astrid with his wings. But then he remembered Astrid forbidding Him to let them in for the night; that a night outside in the storm would teach them a lesson for breaking her precious mirror.

Hiccup didn't see what all the fuss was about; Toothless broke plenty of his things, most of his things. He just didn't see why Astrid was so upset about the stupid mirror! If it was that important to her, he'd buy her one when he had the money! And he'd have to put his foot…er, peg down if she didn't let the dragons in again today. He did hate seeing them outside.

The rain was still falling, but the storm had passed, and with it, it took all of the late-winter slush. That would be good; Hiccup was tired of slipping in the stuff. But he wasn't looking forward to the mud that would be all over Berk after the rain dyed down.

Stretching and strapping on his fake leg, he hobbled over to the window to check and see if the dragons were still there. Sure enough, they were still under that dead tree. Wingless had her wings folded over her head, and Hiccup could tell from the rhythmic rise and fall of her back that she was sleeping; but Toothless' eyes were wide open, and as soon as Hiccup stepped up to the window, the Nightfury's head darted up to look at him.

"I know buddy; I want you to come in, too! But Astrid…you really don't want to mess with her when she's in one of her moods." He shrugged through the window, and hobbled back over to the bed and sat down.

Astrid rolled over to glare at him as soon as he sat.

"Don't console those little hooligans," she chided, "They got what they deserved. Considering what we _used_ to do to dragons, this is barely even considered a punishment!"

"They're just kids, Astrid," Hiccup said, rubbing his eye. "They were just playing."

"Kids, huh?" She rolled back over and covered her head with the blanket. "Kids don't consume twenty pounds of fish per day and cause massive, sometimes fire-related, damage to your house and belongings."

"Oh, I wouldn't say that," Hiccup remembered when he was ten and accidentally set part of the house on fire. In his defense, he'd been trying to smoke out a bees nest!

* * *

The rain didn't stop until later that afternoon. The clouds finally rolled away and the sun actually came out for a few hours. The ground was sticky and muddy, though, and Hiccup didn't dare go outside; he'd already lost a prosthetic leg once that year in the mud, he wasn't fixing to lose another! But Astrid decided she needed to get out of the house, or else she'd go crazy! So she commanded her husband to clean up the glass shards, and she was off.

Everything smelled new and clean after rain storms, and after turning up her nose at the soggy dragons sitting outside the house, she hiked up to the arena.

Astrid was still furious with Ruffnut, but Ruffnut had recently caught the flu, and was out of commission as the head dragon-trainer. Tuffnut had been taking over training for the past few days, along with help from Fishlegs, Astrid thought this would be the safest time to go and visit the trainees.

Half-way there, though, she heard the slap of a foot in the mud, and whirled around, only to see a teary-eyed and shivering Wingless. Her entire underside was coated in mud, from sleeping on the ground all night, and if she'd been human, Astrid would have worried she'd burst out crying!

"What?" Astrid snapped, crossing her arms. Wingless bowed her head a bit, and whimpered, as if to show she was sorry. Astrid didn't buy it, though, and turned her back on the dragon. She waited a minute, and then heard footsteps retreat. Thinking Wingless had gone back home, she started walking again, but was stopped as she heard the sound of bark splintering. She turned again, and saw Wingless carving words into a rain-soaked tree-stump.

Astrid went to go see what her dragon had carved, and on the stump's surface were the words "I am Sorry" and under that, the words "Didn't mean to".

"Why should I accept your apology?" Astrid asked, straightening up and eying her dragon angrily. "That mirror meant a lot to me; I've had it since I was little." Wingless looked at her feet for a moment, and then scratched the word "Wait" into the stump. Astrid's shoulders slumped, but she waved her hand at the dragon, signaling her to go. "Just make it snappy!"

She tapped her foot in the mud as Wingless raced away. She was only gone for a minute, though, and returned, from the direction of the forge, with a little hand-held mirror in her mouth. Taking the mirror, Astrid's eyebrow went up.

"Where did you get this?"

"Hiccup" Wingless scratched.

"Why did Hiccup have it? He told me he couldn't afford a mirror!"

"You. Birthday." She scratched again. Before Wingless had started following Astrid, Hiccup had come out to tell them they could go back in the house while Astrid was away. Hiccup had also told Wingless that he'd been saving the little mirror in his design room at the forge, to give to Astrid on her birthday, but it looked like he'd have to give it to her sooner. Wingless had just run back to the forge and taken it off the shelf it was sitting on.

Astrid was silent. Hiccup HAD bought a mirror for her! He actually listened when she'd complained!

"Oh, " was all she said. Wingless smiled slightly to herself. Astrid didn't look angry any more, and wasn't that the goal of everyone; to make sure Astrid wasn't angry at them and started brandishing the axe she used to favor before Hiccup had locked it away?

"Rrrrhhhg," Wingless tipped her head to the side, and sat down with a thump. Her tail swished a bit, like a dog. Astrid couldn't help but smile, and reached down to pet the dragon.

"How could I stay mad now? It's not the old mirror, but, it's still something. But you're on thin ice, Wingless! No more fighting in the house; if you and Toothless want to play, you take it outside! Thor forbid you wreck the dresser; my wedding dress is in there!" Wingless jumped up and butted her head against Astrid's shoulder and purred. "Okay okay, I get it! I…what's this?" It wasn't until Wingless' head was closer to Astrid's that she noticed the nick in the Nightfury's ear. Well, not exactly a nick, more just a cut, but it would probably turn into a nick when it healed. "How'd you hurt your ear?"

Wingless didn't have the heart to scratch out 'You did it' in the stump, so she just shrugged and hopped further up the path.

"Fine, we're going. How'd you know I was going to the arena?"

* * *

"'Sup, Astrid?" Tuffnut called, waving and turning his attention from the adolescent Gronkle, which wasn't a good idea. The disgruntled dragon, who'd just been shouted at, swung its tail around and knocked Tuffnut off his feet, sending him crashing to the ground. There was some nervous giggles from the kids.

"Hey, Tuff. Hey Fishlegs." Astrid nodded to the two teachers, one on the ground and one standing nearby, busted up with laughter. "I see you're in the middle of a very productive lesson!"

"It IS productive, these little monsters just don't know how to listen!" Tuffnut shoved her helmet up and glared at the children until they fell silent again. He then picked himself up and dusted himself off smiling at his friend. "But seriously, thanks for coming, I didn't know if I'd make it through another day alone with these brats!"

"What am I, chopped fish-heads?" Fishlegs said, leaning on an axe's handle. "I'm here, aren't I?"

"Not like you do much."

"Ouch. That hurt."

"Blind people don't feel pain," Tuffnut elbowed his friend in the stomach and turned back to Astrid. He leaned in closer and lowered his voice. "He's no help at all!"

"I heard that!"

"You two are idiots." Astrid broke into their conversation, literally, shoving Tuffnut to the ground again and knocking the axe from beneath Fishlegs, causing him to topple over. "Now shut up and let me teach, alright?"

"Got it," Tuffnut said, still spitting out dirt.

"You're the boss." Fishlegs mumbled, checking his jaw to make sure nothing was broken. Astrid smirked at her handiwork, and, waving Wingless over, walked up to the kids, who'd formed a little cluster in the center of the arena. Wingless bounded over, startling the children slightly, but as soon as they remembered her from the last lesson, a few students stepped forward and held out their hands.

"Can I pet her?"

"Does she bite?"

"Does she have teeth?" Wingless sat patiently as the children started coming up to scratch her head, asking questions and 'ooo-ing' and 'ahh-ing' about her.

"You remember Wingless from the last time I was here, don't you?" Astrid said, smiling at the kids. A few nodded, but a few children hadn't been present that day and were gawking at Wingless like she was some sort of rare jewel. Wingless quite liked that! "Don't worry, she won't bite. And she's going to help me in today's lesson again, so fall back in line so we can begin!" The Vikings-to-be followed orders and stepped back. Wingless looked up at her friend questioningly, but Astrid just winked and walked back a bit.

"Listen up! Today's lesson: How to deflect a dragon's attack! I had to learn the hard way that, it doesn't matter if the dragon was just trying to play, or if he was trying to defend himself, or what, but he CAN hurt you. We're only people, and even though dragon related deaths have gone down since the Great Peace, dragon related INJURY has gone up, simply because us Vikings don't realize how BIG and HEAVY these creatures are. So today you'll be learning how to protect yourself from an unintentional attack."

Oh, Wingless understood now; Astrid wanted her to play with her and help her demonstrate how a dragon could unintentionally hurt somebody. Well, that seemed easy enough, she decided.

"This should be good," Tuffnut said, leaning up against the wall of the arena.

"Yeah," Fishlegs countered. "Wish I could see it."

"Naw, I suspect the sounds of bones crunching and kids screaming will give you all the picture you need!"

"Hey! What did I tell you two about shutting up!"

* * *

Wingless didn't want to get back up. How was it that skinny little Astrid was able to throw a Nightfury across the arena? Nobody could do that! Astrid had already set the students off to practice what they'd been taught that day, but Wingless still didn't want to move. She wanted to stay laying down and die!

"Oh, you're so dramatic!" Astrid said as she walked up to the dragon's head. "I didn't hurt you, drama queen! You just like making a scene!"

"I dunno, Astrid, you were pretty rough with her. That last throw looked like it probably hurt." Tuffnut sauntered over to talk with his friend.

"As if. What hurts to a human probably wouldn't even register to a dragon." She nudged Wingless' shoulder, but the dragon didn't want to move. Just sleep! She was tired! "Hey, where's Fishlegs?"

"Left 20 minutes ago." Tuffnut scratched his head under his helmet, shrugging his shoulders. "Went to check on Ruff. Still laid up with the flu, and the poor boy can't get over her." Both Vikings shook their heads in disappointment. "Honestly, he could do better than Ruff."

"You don't need to convince me." Astrid said shortly, wishing to stop talking about a certain blond-headed back-stabber. Tuffnut seemed to sense the uncomfortability creeping up on them, and grimaced.

"Look, I'm sorry about Ruff; I'm sure she didn't-"

"Save it." Wingless was up! Her head shot up as Astrid tone got angrier. What was going on now? Was she going to get mad at the other twin, too? "I don't care what she meant and didn't mean to saw. All **I** can say is that I'm glad the blond-wad isn't here." Wingless nodded excitedly; eager to prove to Astrid she was on her side. She wanted to start accumulating as many brownie-points as possible after the mirror accident.

Now it was silent, and the only thing that seemed to distract the Vikings was the steady thump of Wingless' tail in the mud.

"So…Hiccup tells me she and Toothless are getting along pretty well." Tuffnut gestured to Wingless, trying to open the conversation back up. "Says they did the whole fish-thing."

"Yeah, they're pretty good together now. Before, you couldn't leave them alone or they'd be at each other's throats, destroying the house trying to kill each other. Now…well, they're still destroying the house, but now we don't have to worry about finding a dead dragon in our living room every day."

"Heh, if only my Zippleback could do that; the two heads are always at odds with each other!"

"You'd think because Zipplebacks share a body between the heads, they'd get along better." Astrid flipped her braid over her shoulder as she talked. Wingless knew she wanted to talk about herself; Astrid always flipped her braid around when she wanted people to talk about her. "Both Toothless and Wingless share a house; and I think that's what made them get along."

"Really?" Tuffnut's eyebrows arched, and the right side of his mouth drew up in a smirk. "Hmm, didn't think it'd be so innocent a reason." Wingless sat up, raising her ears to listen. What was Tuffnut saying? What did he mean, innocent reason?

"Huh?" Astrid didn't seem to catch the hint either, and shifted her weight from foot to foot. That was one of her other tell-tale signs; it meant she didn't want to continue on the track the conversation was going.

"You're too naive," Tuff said, crossing his arms and leaning against the wall again. "And let me guess; you guys leave them alone in the house, don't you?"

"Yes," Astrid said cautiously. Tuffnut let out a laugh, exposing his crooked teeth. Wingless didn't like where this was going…wherever this was going. It was true; she was naive!

"Sweet, innocent little Astrid," he clucked, shaking his head. "You don't honestly think they just 'decided' to be friends, after hating each other so valiantly, do you?"

"First off," Astrid grasped Tuffnut by the front of the shirt. "DON'T call me little. Secondly, I HOPE, for your sake, that you aren't implying what I THINK you're implying."

"I'm not implying anything!" He held his hands up. "I'm spelling it out for you: Toothless and Wingless probably-" but he never got to finish that sentence. Wingless had stood right up and, rearing back, swung her claws at his face. She didn't really want to hurt him, just shut him up; so instead of tearing him to shreds like she would have loved to do, Wingless merely knocked his helmet off his head. The terrified look on his face told Wingless he wouldn't be saying anything for a while.

She was mortified! What kind of girl did they think she was! Er, dragon….dragon-girl…she was a female, okay? Point is, if she'd been human, her face would have been so red, they'd both probably mistake her for a Nightmare! How dare they imply that she…with Toothless…Ugg! The idea was too vile to even approach! She just needed to get away for a little while!

* * *

Astrid watched as Wingless sprinted out of the arena, head and tail down. Oh Gods, that was so horrible! Wingless must have been so embarrassed, no doubt she understood what Tuffnut was saying!

"Now look what you've done idiot!" she shouted, shaking him a bit. "I'll have to track her down now!"

"What?" He looked genuinely surprised by the dragons reaction. Astrid, Hiccup and Stoick were the only people who knew about Wingless' ability to write and understand human language, so of course Tuffnut wouldn't have known what he'd been saying WASN'T just flying over her head. "What'd I say?"


	19. Chapter 19: I Wouldn't if I Were You

**Aha! *Dies***

**Chapter Nineteen: I Wouldn't if I Were You**

Frigma barreled through a group of younger Vikings, sending them tumbling down, shouting. She wasn't watching where she was going, and had already over-turned two carts full off fish, three full grown men and now this group of kids. But she didn't care; her mind was occupied with a single thought: GET AWAY! She was so fantastically embarrassed by what Tuffnut had said, she couldn't look at him anymore! And how was she ever to face Astrid again? Did Astrid really think…? Besides being turned into the stupid dragon in the first place, this was probably the worst day of Frigma's life so far!

And she didn't even want to THINK about how she was going to face Toothless! She was just glad it was impossible to blush as a dragon; or else she'd be red for the rest of her life!

Frigma dodged a hammer being swung at her by a disgruntled Viking and skittered off into the forest. Maybe she could just live out in the wild again, only coming back to the village to steal food…

She halted just outside the village boundary, and slipped behind a tree to hide. Plopping herself down on the ground, she turned over her options in her head. She could fly away; she and Astrid had gotten in a few practices since she first tried it, and she was fairly certain she could keep herself alive if she really had to fly to a different Island. That could work! She could fly to another Island and live with…oh, wait. Other villages probably weren't as chummy with dragons as Berk was. Dang.

She mulled over the thought of getting over herself and just staying with Hiccup and Astrid, but it just made her head hurt! But the more she thought about it, the more she started reasoning with herself.

"_Nobody else knows I'm really a person,"_ she thought, looking at her scaly feet. "_I mean, they probably wouldn't think it was weird or anything…I'd be the only one embarrassed. Why would they think it's weird? I look like a wild-born dragon to them…"_ But reasoning this out was just not…reasonable! There was no way to apply logic to this without making Frigma cringe and reject the idea. It was just plain…gross!

The sun was setting already, Frigma having spent the day with Astrid at the arena. If she didn't get back to the house, Hiccup would worry. And Astrid…well, she'd probably throw a fit! And Frigma really did hate making them worry; they were good people! She really had grown fond of them in her exile to this body; more so than she'd ever grown as a human. She shook her head. She didn't really want to go back, but she knew she had to. So, raising to her feet and shaking a few pieces of moss off her legs, she grudgingly dragged her feet back into town.

Vikings, or at least these Vikings, didn't reserve any special day for religious ceremonies; not like Christians and their Sabbath (Frigma had read a few books as a human that had been brought to Berk by Christian missionaries) but rather, on Sundays, went out drinking. Not very respectful, but hey, they were Vikings after all! So not many women were out and about by the time Frigma reached the middle of the town. Most had hauled up in their homes, hoping to stay away from the men and their stupid drunken antics. But as Frigma walked through town, she did spy a single woman, struggling up the road, her hands full with a big basket full of what looked like linens. It only took a second for Frigma to recognize her own Mother. And it only took one more second for Frigma to bound over and nudging the basket up, so her Mother could get a better hold on the handles.

"Why, thank you Toothless…oh, wait, you aren't Toothless." She looked over the basket at Frigma and squinted. Bjanca Svenson was getting up in age, and her eyesight was fuzzy. Frigma tipped her head and raised her ears. Half of her hoped her Mother wouldn't recognize her in this dragon body, but the other half….well, the other half was weeping with joy! "You're….you're that new Nightfury young Hiccup brought home."

Frigma flicked her ears and nodded a bit, but caught herself. She didn't want to let on to her Mother that she was smart enough to understand her.

"Listen, little Nightfury, do you think you could help me with this?" she looked at the linens and shrugged. "My arm's aren't what they used to be!" Without hesitation, Frigma stopped down and let her Mother place the basket on her back. She balanced it between her wings and started walked up the hill to the house. Bjanca followed as closely as her aging legs could take her. "That's very kind of you, m'dear! These other dragons; humph! No Manners! But you, you're downright helpful! I really appreciate this!" Frigma looked over her shoulder and blinked, thinking a smile might startle Bjanca.

"You know, you remind me of…" Frigma froze. A slightly disturbed look came over her Mothers face, but it passed as quickly as it had come on. "…like somebody I cared for. She had freckles that looked an awful lot like those little spot on your face." She was talking about her! Her Mother was talking about her! Frigma tipped her head and raised an eyebrow, hoping Bjanca would continue. "She, ah, well, she's not here right now, but she used to help me carry these linens in. She was so helpful. She didn't like dragons much, but I think she wouldn't have minded you." Bjanca smiled at Frigma, who felt her heart break in two. Her Mother was a string woman, and wouldn't have shown weakness in public, but Frigma had lived with her for her whole life, and knew when she was hiding her emotions. Behind those gentle eyes and the wrinkly smile was the sadness Frigma knew she felt.

All of the days antics melted away into insignificance as Frigma listened to her Mother talk. There was nothing she would have loved more than if her Mother had asked her to help hand the sheets up on the line, but knew that wouldn't happen. She didn't have thumbs, how could Frigma help?

"I don't have anything to give you for your help," Bjanca said, setting the basket on the front step of the house. Frigma shook her head slightly and swished her tail. She already had what she wanted. "I wish Frig- that person I was telling you about was here. I really do think she would have liked you. Don't say much, just like her. Oh, look at me! Talking to a dragon! You must think I'm off my rocker!

Frigma let out a sigh. If only her Mother knew.

* * *

Setting foot in the house was murder. Frigma had left her Mother at the foot of the old house, and had continued on her original path back to Hiccup's house. But as soon as she reached the door, she couldn't take another step. What would happen? Had Astrid told Hiccup? Ugg, this was NOT going to be fun.

She nosed the door open a bit and stuck her head in to look around. Toothless' face was instantly in front of hers, eyes wide and ears perked, ready to play. Frigma let out a yelp and jumped back, catching her injured ear on the door. This caused her to whip her head around, lose her footing and stumble backwards into the mud.

"What was that?" came Astrid's voice from inside.

"Toothless, who was that?" Hiccup said, and Frigma heard footsteps, and then saw Hiccup open the door and step down the front steps. "Wingless? What are you doing, Wingless?" Astrid followed him outside, only to shove him out of the way and stop down to whisper something to Frigma.

"I didn't tell anyone, alright?" he said, before Hiccup came to his senses and trumped back over.

"What was that for?" he asked, "And what did you just say to Wingless?"

"Nothing." Astrid replied, going back inside. "You wouldn't get it anyway. It's a girl thing." To this Hiccup rolled his eyes, and started grumbling about 'women are weird' and 'always gossiping'.

"C'mon guys, stop playing around and get inside!" Frigma rolled over and shook the mud off of her back, and Toothless wiggled excitedly. He didn't realize anything was amiss, and hadn't played with his friend all day; and he was bored! Hiccup was so dull these days, hardly ever wanting to fly or anything! Toothless couldn't just stay cooped up in the forge all day!

Frigma was in no mood to play, though, and shouldered past him. This only made Toothless all that more restless, and as he followed her in the house, didn't watch where he was going, and when she halted just inside the house, he crashed into her and they both ended up in a tangle of legs and wings.

Toothless was so startled by the shrill howl Wingless let out, he tore away from her, catching the claw on top of his right wing with the claw on top of her left, and pulled her to the ground as he rapidly backed up. Wingless looked up, a frantically angry expression scrawled across her face, and, lashing a claw out to keep Toothless away, she began trying to get their wings unattached from each other.

"Now what!" Hiccup called from upstairs. He peered over the landing just in time to see Wingless nearly bite Toothless' ear off for trying to help get their wings untangled. Why was she so jumpy all of a sudden? "Hey, Astrid, Wingless is…acting weird. Can you make sure she doesn't maim Toothless?"

"What?" Astrid set down the book she'd just picked up, and looked over the landing. "She's not jumpy! Toothless is just an idiot!"

"Whoa, okay!" Hiccup held his hands up and stood back up. "No need to get defensive! I just-"

"I'm NOT being defensive! Wingless if fine! Just leave her alone!"

"RAAARRG!" Both Vikings looked down to see Toothless stagger backwards, his wing finally free, but a gash down his nose. Wingless stood opposite, her ears back and her tail lashing. Hiccup gave his wife a sarcastic look, but Astrid only turned her nose up.

"Maybe if Toothless wasn't so nosy about everything, his nose wouldn't be put in danger like that." She said matter-of-factly.

* * *

Frigma sat by the fire, glancing back and forth. Toothless had retreated to a corner, and was eyeing her warily. She didn't want him to go near her, and every time he tried to creep back out, she'd let out a warning growl and he'd slither back. It was near midnight, and both Hiccup and Astrid were sleeping, but Frigma didn't want to sleep. Not until Toothless fell asleep.

Her fear of his was totally irrational. What was she so afraid of? She just didn't want Toothless to go near her. She felt if he got to close…well, she didn't know what would happen. But she didn't want to find out.

She heard an owl hoot outside. A few pre-spring lightning bugs were floating around outside, their glow dim. The fire was burning down, and the room was almost pitch-black. The only things still illuminated were Toothless' eyes and his claws, glinting with the last available specks of light. Letting out a yawn, Frigma decided it wouldn't hurt to just lie down. She wouldn't fall asleep, just rest her head. Yeah, rest her head. She deserved a little rest; after the day she'd gone through.

She blinked once, twice, a few more times. On the last blink, her eyes stayed closed a little longer than she'd intended, and when she opened them again, light was streaming in through the window. Whoa, was there a fire? No, this light wasn't red from flames, it was yellow from…the sun.

Wait, the sun? It had just been midnight! Had she fallen asleep? What a jip! It hadn't even felt like sleep! If she was going to sleep, shouldn't she feel rested? This sucked, she'd fallen asleep without meaning to!

One of the first things she noticed about the room was that Toothless wasn't in his corner. Well, that was reasonable; she figured he and Hiccup must have left already for the forge. But she heard snoring coming from upstairs. Astrid didn't snore. Hiccup was still home! So that meant Toothless must have still been around.

Frigma tried to stand, and was immediately alerted to Toothless' location. Lying across her back was his wing, and he was curled up next to her!

How dare he! She'd warned him to stay away! Oh, Frigma was mad! She was so mad, she felt like her insides would catch fire! She opened her mouth to roar at Toothless, but it wasn't a roar that erupted from her.

* * *

Hiccup shot up in bed as the warning screech was issued. He knew that sound; every Viking in Berk knew. Even if there hadn't been a Nightfury attack in ten years, the sound never left you. It was like claws scraping rock mixed with a roar, and then came the-

The light lit up the whole house, and then came the smell of burning wood. Astrid jumped out of bed, not bothering to help Hiccup with his fake leg, and flew down the stairs. She saw Wingless, looking utterly confused and just about as shocked at the Vikings, mouth agape, standing in front of the giant hole in the north wall that the blast had created. Toothless was about ten feet outside, having been blown back. The blast hadn't hurt him, but he still looked shell-shocked.

"Astrid! Astrid, what happened?" Hiccup called, his metal prosthetic finally on. He nearly stumbled down the stairs, and then yelped. "What- Aw, Come ON! That wall was just fixed!"

Wingless didn't move. Had she done that? How had…had she just breathed fire? Or, whatever it was that Nightfuries breathed? It had been so easy, she just felt to angry, and then…this! Was that all there was to breathing fire? Compared to flying, that was a piece of cake.

"Wingless?" Astrid called, stretching out a hand. "Are…are you alright?" Wingless just looked back and flicked her ears.

"Yeah." Hiccup said, dropping his hands at his sides. "This isn't weird behavior AT ALL."


	20. Chapter 20: Spring Fitz

**Hmmm. Well, it seems Fanfiction dot net is being a weirdo and blocking my URLs! If you want to see some of my first sketches of Frigma/Wingless, go here:**

frosted**(dash)**kitty**(dot)**deviantart**(dot)**com**(slash)**#**(slash)**d2ryxyg

**Where it says dash, put a – and where it says dot put a period and where it says slash put a /**

**I know it's stupid, but this is the only way to put a URL on here! My past attempts were foiled because the site would just delete the link! I'm sorry!**

**Chapter Twenty: Spring Fitz**

Frigma was gaining weight.

As a human, she'd never really given much thought to how much she ate; she ate when she was hungry, and didn't eat when she wasn't hungry. It was so simple, and back then, she'd never been fat. Maybe sturdy, but NOT fat! She wasn't a twig, and she'd liked that; at least she didn't freeze in the winter! But it seemed as a dragon, she'd gained a monstrous appetite and with it, a few pounds. She stared at herself in the stream, face so close to the water, it lapped up now and then and splashed her nose.

Yes, that was definantly fat! She had a stomach! A little, round stomach! How had this happened so fast? Didn't weight gain happen gradually? She sat down on her back legs and stared at her stomach. It wasn't really a whole lot, Astrid and Hiccup hadn't said anything, and it still didn't make her as big as Toothless, who ate about twice as much as she did, but it was there. And she hated it.

Astrid was nearby, adjusting a snapped strap on the saddle Hiccup had made for Frigma to wear while she was flying. Astrid didn't need it to steer the way Hiccup did, but she did need to stay alive! Frigma was so jerky in the air that Astrid had a hard time holding on! The saddle was itchy and Frigma didn't like it, but it did keep Astrid from falling off her back, so she put up with it.

She and Astrid had been flying for about thirty minutes when they'd landed so Astrid could fix the strap. Frigma WAS getting better; but she still wasn't good. She hadn't yet gotten the hang of using her tail-fins to steer, and had taken favor to making steep embanking turns instead, which Astrid didn't like.

Frigma moved her tail out in front of her to look at the fins. She didn't even see why she needed to use them, or why Toothless needed them either. Frigma had found that, if you wanted to keep your wings perpendicular to your body (which was how all dragons favored to fly; it was easier and if you crashed it was easier that way to tuck your wings in) but if you didn't use your tail-fin, you COULD actually fly without it. It had been a mistake at first; a turn gone wrong, and she'd steadied herself by twisting her wings to the side, causing them to be at oblique angles to her body. It had steadied her, and opened up a whole new style of flying! Instead of using the fins, you just made steep turns by switching the angle your wings were to your body quickly and voila! You were turning!

She did still need to use her tail to actually get up into the air, which was probably why Toothless couldn't fly without Hiccup's help. That was the one thing that really stumped Frigma; why the tail was essential for lift-off. It was like seeing with your eyes; she wasn't sure how you did it, but she knew that you DID just do it. It was lamentable; if not for the take-off, she might have found a way for Toothless to fly without Hiccup.

"There!" Astrid finally called, holding the saddle up to inspect her handiwork. "Finished. C'mere Wingless, we have to put this back on!" Frigma hung back; she didn't exactly want to put it back on. She let out a low 'woof'-ing sound, and dipped her head.

"Don't be like that!" Astrid sighed, her arms drooping. "I thought we were past this chicken stuff!" Frigma resented that remark, but dipped her head even lower. "Fine. We can go home. But we have to fly there, so get your scaly butt over here!"

* * *

Hiccup was puzzled when Toothless started tearing around the forge in some sort of frenzy. One minute, the giant dragon had been dozing in the corner, the next…BAM! He was knocking things over left and right, sticking his nose in all the cupboards, clearly looking for something.

The seasons were just changing; and this Spring promised to be a warm one! Usually the snow would stick well into May, but it was only March and the grass was already starting to grow back. No flowers grew in Berk, but what little plant life that managed to survive through the winter was budding back up, and things were looking a little less gray than usual. It put most of the village's residents in a good mood, but for Toothless, it just put him in a crazy one.

"WHAT are you doing!" Hiccup shouted, trying to catch the cascade of swords he'd just hung up fall from the wall. Thankfully, he wasn't skewered by the weapons, but one of the swords did hit him in the head hard enough to knock him down. Toothless didn't stop his rampage, though, until Hiccup got up and jumped on his back. "Stop this right now! You're just creating more work for me! What is the matter with you!"

Finally, Toothless settled down, but only after he'd accidentally put his foot down in a bucket of paint. Hiccup climbed down from his back to try and set everything back up the way it'd been, and Toothless, taking the bucket's handle in his mouth, trotted out of the forge.

"Good riddance!" Hiccup muttered under his breath as Toothless left.

Toothless had started the day just fine. He'd woken up, careful not to wake Wingless, who'd been on edge for the past few weeks, and followed Hiccup to the forge, like any other day. Astrid had taken the saddle Hiccup had made for her and Wingless, so he figured the girls were going out flying. He'd been happy at the time; that meant Wingless wouldn't be in town to attack him. They'd been on such good terms before, and then one day, she just started acting so bothered by him! She never wanted anything to do with him anymore, and if he ever tried to sit next to her or play with her, she'd hiss and smack him away.

Toothless shook his head, spilling a bit of the paint. "_Females,"_ he sighed inwardly. "_Why are they so confusing?"_ But the strangest thing had happened. Toothless had a very keen sense of smell, and he could usually tell when Wingless and Astrid were flying back into town, even if they were still a ways off, but today, as soon as he'd scented them…..well, he didn't know what. He'd just gone berserk! He wasn't even sure why he needed this paint; all he knew was that when he saw the paint, all the fight had gone out of him.

He didn't even know where his legs were taking him until he approached the house. Wait…there was….something in his brain…..he couldn't quite put his foot on it, but it was some sort of….idea…..

But before his mind could fully wrap itself around the repercussions of his actions, he'd jerked his head to the side and splashed the front of Hiccup's house with the paint. It was red, and stood out painfully against its gray background, but once he'd started, he couldn't stop! He dipped his front feet in the paint and started rubbing it all over the wood. By the time he'd emptied the bucket, he was covered in about as much paint as the house itself, and he stepped back to admire his handiwork.

Hmm, didn't look half-bad, in his opinion! Sort of pretty; in an abstract way. But his work wasn't done yet. He ran back to the forge, where he knew some of the prettiest things he'd seen in a while were, and started ransacking the place for the second time.

"TOOTHLESS! No! Bad dragon! What are you-Why are you covered in paint!" Hiccup tried unsuccessfully to stop Toothless from destroying the forge, but only succeeded in covering himself with paint. "Gods, what is your problem!"

Toothless snatched a ruby-hilted sword and tore the rubies out, much to Hiccup's horror, and he also managed to grab a slightly reflective shield, before he left once more. Taking his prizes back to the red-painted house, he set the rubies by the door and propped the shield up under the front-room window.

"_There! Perfect!"_ he thought, wiggling his haunches with excitement. He'd finally been able to figure out why this needed to be done, and done quickly. Wingless would be back any minute, he could scent her getting closer and closer, and he wanted her to see this. He knew there was something off about how she smelled, and that was precisely why he needed to do all this; she smelled, well, what was the word that Hiccup used to describe Astrid? Pretty? Ys, that was definantly it; Wingless smelled _prettier_ than usual! And Toothless, being the confused goof-ball that he was, wanted to show Wingless that he could make the house just as pretty as her.

Unfortunately, Hiccup didn't think the house was so pretty.

He arrived at the house, out of breath and covered in paint just as Wingless and Astrid landed. He was sputtering incoherently as he looked at his house, waving his arms and eventually, collapsing in hysteric sobs. Astrid didn't react right away, she just stood there, transfixed, but Wingless reacted.

Toothless had thought the house looked good. But apparently, Wingless was not impressed. She kept growling and grumbling, and when Toothless walked over with his famous smile, she shot his her death-glare and, turning up her nose, walked back to where Astrid was and nudged her hand.

Toothless couldn't believe it! He'd worked so hard to do all this for her, and she was snubbing him! Well, that just showed how grateful she was; not very!

Just as Toothless sat down on the grass, he felt a something drop onto his nose. Looking up, more drops hit his face, until he stuck his tongue out and realized what was falling from the sky: rain. And it wasn't long until the clouds started rolling in, thicker and darker than before, and dumped rain down in bucketfuls. Astrid and Wingless went inside, but Hiccup continued to sit on the ground, staring at the house. He didn't even respond when Toothless tapped his arm with his tail.

So, seeing as there was nothing left to do outside, Toothless followed an angry Astrid and a grumbling Wingless into the house. But before he even stepped through the door, he saw it; the paint was being washed off the house.

* * *

Hiccup sat on the bed, shaking his soaking wet head. Water droplets scattered everywhere, and Astrid let out an angry snort.

"Hey! Some of had the sense to come in from the rain and want to stay dry!" she said, throwing a towel at Hiccup. "And stop that mopping; the rain washed the paint away, didn't it?" It was already the next morning, and Hiccup had finally come in from the rain, having spent most of the night outside, completely dumbfounded by his dragons lapse in judgment.

"I just don't understand it, Astrid! Why did he do it? I've never seen any kind of dragon do that!" The rain, had, in fact, washed away most of the paint, but it still bothered Hiccup.

"Well, how would I know?" she asked, pulling on her boots. "Why not ask Fishlegs? Didn't he re-write the dragon manual? I'm sure he knows."

"Yeah. Maybe I'll do that." He rested his head in one hand, and listened as Toothless let out a shriek, and Wingless let out a warning growl. "What is wrong with those two lately? D'you think there's something in the water?"

"Maybe it's the Spring Fitz." Astrid stood up and stretched. When Hiccup shot her a questioning glance, she rolled her eyes and leaned against the wall. "You know, the feeling you get from being cooped up all winter? They're probably just anxious for summer to roll around; I know I am."

"Not like it's all that much warmer." Hiccup half-smiled. "Okay, fine. I'll go see Fishlegs today. But first, will you help me straighten out the forge today? Toothless pretty much destroyed it yesterday, and I sort of need some help cleaning up the mess!"


	21. Chapter 21: Boys are DimWitted

Hey everybody! Wow, I've hit 50 reviews! Thank you all for reading and sharing your thoughts with me! Rest-assured, I read every review I get and take into account every suggestion made! Thank you to all my reviewers!

**When I was tenth grade and taking creative writing, my teacher asked us students: "What makes you a good writer?" and we had to write our answers down on paper, and then she'd read our answers out loud so we could discuss and vote on the best definition. Most of the kids wrote: Good vocabulary, strong plot, believable characters, engaging setting and descriptions that draw a reader in, ect ect. But when she read mine, she said it was by far the best definition she'd ever gotten: **_**I think the only thing it takes to be a good author is someone to read your story! If one person in the entire world likes and is inspired by your work, then you are a good writer.**_

**If that is so, then I must be a pretty darn good writer! Ahaha, I'm such an egotist! Sorry, but I do occasionally like to toot my own horn! Derp.**

**Oh, and in case you didn't recognize it, Toothless' actions in the last chapter were based off of the mating rituals of the Bower Birds; males build nests and then decorate them with brightly colored things they find and some even 'paint' the twigs with berries or mud! From now on, every weird thing Toothless does will be based off of different species' rituals for attracting the ladies! Hahaha! See if you can guess the animals in this chapter!**

* * *

**Chapter Twenty One: Boys are Dim-Witted**

Toothless KNEW this was going to work! It had better, he thought to himself, nudging one of the white stones he'd gotten from the cliff-face into the straight line he'd created. All the stones were lined up perfectly, leading from the house to a little stone-encircled patch of grass that Toothless had arranged a number of interesting looking objects. He'd nicked most of the objects from near-by houses, like the ring made of gold and the shiny tooth that had been sitting on a dresser, or the colorfully decorated hair-ornaments that had been hiding in a cabinet.

He'd only chosen things he thought Wingless might like; things that were pretty and/or shiny. And all the stones were a sparkling white color and had been pain-stakingly scratched out of an untouched part of the cliff. Oh, she'd BETTER like this; otherwise, Toothless might just go crazy!

Toothless sat, rather impatiently, and waited until Wingless poked her head outside like she usually did, waiting for Astrid to wake. She seemed to notice the rocks outside the door, and her eyes moved down the line of rocks to where Toothless was sitting, tail wagging and grin plastered on his face. This was it, she was walking towards him! But when she bent her head to sniff the objects in the 'garden', she didn't look happy. In fact, Toothless actually had enough sense to jump out of the way as Wingless darted a paw out and took a swipe at his nose.

Toothless whined questioningly, but Wingless didn't reply. She just gave him a hard stare, and nudged the hair ornaments.

"_What?"_ he thought, his ears quivering, "_I nicked them for you!"_ but this didn't impress Wingless. She just tossed her head and went back to sit by the door, refusing to look at Toothless. He let out a rumble. What was it going to take to impress this female!

* * *

"ARG!" Hiccup flinched away from the dreadful noise coming from his Nightfury, covering his ears as he did so. "Toothless! What are you doing? Be quiet, you'll disturb the whole village!" But the dragon didn't hear Hiccup over the horrid wailing that he passed off as 'singing'. Toothless was sitting on the cliff where Wingless and Astrid had just taken off from; in fact, they were still circling overhead. He'd thrown back his head and started belting out a serious of screeches and roars, trying to get Wingless' attention.

"Hiccup!" Astrid called from above. "Shut him up!"

"I'm trying!" Hiccup yelled back, but again he was drowned out by another 'chorus' in Toothless' song. "Toothless! Ug, shut up!"

* * *

Frigma couldn't concentrate! The wailing was messing with her sight; she had thought that only applied to lesser dragon like Gronkles and Naders, but apparently, Nightfuries got confused by noise as well. And having your vision shake and blur was not good when you were soaring a hundred feet above the ocean.

Toothless had been acting so very weird the past few hours. Last night the crazy reptile had painted the house red! Well, Frigma had seen how upset it made Hiccup and Astrid to have their house 'decorated' like that, and had been sure to let Toothless know she did NOT think it was funny. But the stupid creature was persistent, if nothing else. That very morning, he'd stolen a fist-full of golden and silver items from Hiccup's neighbors and put them in some sort of little circle made of stones. Frigma didn't know what he'd been playing at, but she didn't think the neighbors would appreciate having their stuff stolen; and it was pretty expensive stuff, too!

But now this! Was he in pain? Sounded like he was dying to Frigma, but he looked fine as far as she could tell. Just stupid.

"Whoa, Wingless," Astrid said, her nerves creeping into her voice. "Steady out, we're tipping!" Frigma shook her head and tried to focus on flying, but that horrid yowling was really messing with her sense of direction. She couldn't tell right from left, and when she tried to pull into a slight dive, she ended up trying to fly upwards! "Wingless! What's going on, what're you doing!" And then, before she could even comprehend what was going on, she was falling. The world was spinning and blurry; because of the noise or because they were actually spinning, she didn't know, but they water was coming at her awfully fast.

The noise stopped as she zipped down past the edge of the cliff where Toothless was sitting, and as she rolled in the air, trying to clear her head now that she could think, she saw Toothless, with Hiccup on his back, dive off the cliff. Astrid was screaming in her ear, but it was nothing compared to the terrible 'song' Toothless had sung, and was only mildly affecting her, but before she hit the waves, Toothless had grabbed one of her wings and, making a ninety-degree turn, jerked her back into a stable position, and her wings caught the updraft created by the water crashing against the rocks. Astrid was lurched up, knocking the breath out of her, but at least they wouldn't die of cold now.

Above them Toothless let out a sigh, but he wasn't out of trouble yet! Frigma flapped up harder, and butted her head against his stomach, making him lose balance and roll in the air. The look of shock and confusing almost made Frigma laugh; he deserved it though. Serves him right for making her fall in the first place!

* * *

Toothless landed right beside Wingless, and as soon as his feet touched the ground, he bounded over to her and started nosing her all over, making sure she was okay. Was she hurt? He didn't know why he cared so much…but he did.

Okay, his serenade was a bust. It had just confused her as she was flying; he should have foreseen that. She could have been really hurt, and not to mention Astrid could have drowned! Toothless was mentally kicking himself for the whole idea; dragons didn't usually sing to each other, so there was no reason to think Wingless would have any idea about what he was doing!

In response to his worriedness, Wingless growled and smacked Toothless' head with her tail-fin. She didn't like him getting so close these days; and besides, she was okay, maybe a little shaken, but okay. Toothless backed off a bit and let Hiccup hop off his back. Astrid practically fell off of Wingless' back, and Hiccup mumbled something about taking her back home.

"I don't know what's gotten into you two lately, but you had better behave while I take Astrid home; if I catch wing of any trouble from you two, I'll…I'll….well, I'll do something!" Toothless watched his boy leave with Astrid, who looked pale as a new-born Nader, while keeping one eye on Wingless. As soon as Hiccup had vanished and Toothless was sure they were out of ear-shot, he leapt and pounced on Wingless, pinning one wing to the ground and, much to her dislike, started covering her face in licks.

"_Are you alright? Is your head clear now? I'm sorry, it was stupid of me! Are you mad at me? I'm really really sorry!" _His thoughts went fast as lightning, and even though he knew she couldn't answer them or even hear them, he still rambled on. "_I know I do everything wrong; but I try! I'm new to this whole friend thing, and I've never met another Nightfury like you! In fact, I've barely met any other Nightfuries at all!"_

Wingless stopped struggling after a while, but she still wasn't happy about the whole licking thing. As a human, she would have found this repulsive, and as a dragon; she still found it repulsive! But this was probably something Nightfuries did, so she just sat and beared it. A Nightfury's tongue was sort of like a cat's tongue; rough and sand-paper-like.

"_Hey!" _she thought as Toothless started in on her ears._ "Be careful with those things! I paid a high price for those ears; don't be tearing them off or anything!"_

* * *

Hiccup hiked up to Fishlegs' house. After checking in on the dragons, who he'd found asleep on the cliff top, he went to see his friend and ask him his opinion on the weird behavior Toothless and Wingless had been exhibiting lately. But when questioned about this, Fishlegs just laughed and scratched his cheek.

"Hiccup, it doesn't take a genius like you to figure it out." He said, to which Hiccup frowned.

"Figure what out?"

"Oh, c'mon," Fishlegs put down the carving he was working on and leaned forward in his chair. His blanched blue eyes staring at Hiccup like they could really see him. "Think about it Hiccup. It's Spring-time. What happens in the Spring-time?"

"Flowers bloom?" Hiccup guessed, shrugging his shoulders.

"Try again."

"The fish migrate back?"

"Take another stab at it."

"Fishlegs, I honestly don't know, okay? Why won't you just tell me?" Hiccup sat down on the chair opposite Fishlegs and pouted (a comical expression when placed on Hiccup's face). Fishlegs closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead.

"Well, you've never had a female dragon before, so I guess you wouldn't know it. But I mean, you've seen it a hundred times before! We live in a village full of dragons for Thor's sake! You even helped with the nesting last year. Hiccup, Wingless is probably in heat."

"Huh?" Hiccup's expression went from pouting, to confused, to down-right flabbergasted. "What do you mean? Like…like a dog?"

"Well, I say 'in heat' but what I really mean is she's probably emitting more pheromones than usual due to the warmer-weather. Reptiles don't have specific times in which they can and can't breed like most mammals, but during the warmer seasons-"

"I didn't ask for a complete explanation of this!" Hiccup said, standing up and knocking the chair over. "Fishlegs, what am I ganna do? I have two Nightfuries in my house, and one of them is IN HEAT!" Hiccup tried not to imagine what that would mean; the image was too disturbing.

"What, did you assume Toothless had no drive to reproduce? He just hasn't had a female Nightfury hanging around, but now that there is one readily available, he's not ganna pass the opportunity up. From what you've told me, all the weird things he's been doing are very typical of male dragons. He painted your house to try and make it more visually pleasing for Wingless to look at, he stole all those golden things to give to her and he arranged those stones into a garden to present all the stolen things. Even the singing, although weird, is still done between Naders." Hiccup was still trying to take all this information in. He tried to speak several times, but every time he opened his mouth, a gush of air came out with no words in it.

"I don't…I guess I always thought of Toothless as the same age as me," he sputtered finally. Fishlegs leaned back again and resumed carving.

"Even if that was so, which I suspect it's not, that would mean Toothless was well into his adult stage of life. You're not a kid anymore, Hiccup. In case you haven't been counting, you're 25."

"I know that!" he started pacing. "But, Wingless keeps snubbing Toothless. What will he do if he can't impress her?"

"Nothing, then. But if she's really not interested, she'd probably have left by now. I have a little theory." He held his carving of a Monstrous Nightmare at Arm's length to admire it. "What do you think of this?"

"It's nice," Hiccup said, pushing the carving away. "Your theory?"

"Oh, right. Well, I think Wingless is just waiting to see if Toothless can produce anything of real value to her. She's obviously not impressed by the trinkets he's managed to get her, so she's probably holding out for something she really wants. A lot of women do that, not just dragons."

"Fishlegs, what if-" but that sentence went unfinished, because just as he spoke, there was a terrible screeching outside, and the sound of an inevitable Nightfury fire-burst. Hiccup raced outside, Fishlegs bumbling along behind him. Several people were running around, shouting. One of the old torches by the docks was burning. "What's happened?" Hiccup shouted, grabbing the nearest person by the arm. That person just happened to be Asa, one of the Vikings who'd come to Berk with Ellie and the rest of that refugee tribe. "Was it Toothless and Wingless? What did they do?"

"No, it's not them," she said, her eyes darting around nervously. "It's-" But that sentence didn't get finished either. Hiccup could already hear the shouts of the enemy Vikings, and he could see the red sails of their ships, painted to represent their harsh life-style.

Ever since the Great Peace between Vikings and Dragons, many of the neighboring Vikings tribes had adopted the friendly acceptance to the scaled beasts, and the Lava-Lots were no exception. In fact, they'd known of the dragons' usefulness even before the downfall of the queen, and had, on some rare occasions, happened to befriend a few. And they dragons on their volcano Island were so terribly different than the dragons found on Berk, Hiccup had barely ever even see some of the fire-species.

But the Lava-Louts were attacking, and with them; it could be seen flying towards the village over the sea, was a very large and very terrible boney dragons that went by no name, but looked an awful lot like the skeleton of a Nightmare. On fire.

"Why are they attacking?" Hiccup demanded, but Asa had already run off. He turned to Fishlegs just as another shrieking fire-burst was released, setting another torch on fire. "I have to go find Toothless; he can't fly without me!"


	22. Chapter 22: Knocked Out, Part One

**The animals last chapter were tropical ants (they're not actually ants! They look more like beetles and they do the garden-thing) And the singing was based off of Douglas-squirrels, because when they sing to attract a mate, it sounds like something is dying a slow, painful death! (They swarm my house every spring!)**

**As always, thank you for the reviews!**

**Note: The enemy dragons described in this chapter are actually from the book; they don't have an official name (or at least they aren't named in the few books I've read) but they're described to look like the skeletons of Monstrous Nightmares on fire.**

**Chapter Twenty Two: Knocked Out, Part One**

Toothless had been the first to see the red sails on the horizon, but Wingless had been the first to hear the roar of the dragon that accompanied the ships. Both heads snapped up at the same time, and Toothless let out a wail. Jumping up and releasing Wingless' wing, he tried to take off to get to the top of the torches, but without Hiccup, the best he could fly was a few feet above the ground.

Taking the hint, Wingless took off, and although a little shaky, started circling the tower. It took her a minute to remember how to produce the fire-burst, but once she did remember, it was probably the most brilliantly blue fire Toothless had ever seen!

Wingless was very confused! She didn't know what was going on, but as soon as she lit the torch, Vikings started pouring out of their houses, axes and hammers swinging around wildly. By this time the ships were drawing nearer and nearer to the docks, and Toothless kept running back and forth between the edge of the cliff to stare down at the ships, then to the far side of the little meadow, and Wingless guessed he wanted to find Hiccup.

Toothless kept flapping his wings uselessly, but, like she knew would happen, every time he tried to get airborne, he'd flop back down on the ground.

"_What I do for this dunderhead!" _she thought, running up to Toothless and fixing him with a hard stare. "_Stay here, you ignoramus!"_ and then took off. Soaring above all the Vikings was much easier than trying to maneuver around them, and she inwardly thanked herself for learning to fly! But soon enough she realized she didn't know where Hiccup was, since he wasn't back at the house when she checked. Astrid was, though, and she was waiting outside for Wingless. Barely landing at all, the Viking swung herself up onto Wingless' saddle, and they took off again.

"What are you doing?" she called, lifting up Wingless' ear to shout in it above the din of the scattering Vikings. "The ships are over there!" But Wingless wasn't taking Astrid to the ships. She still had to find Hiccup; Toothless was useless without him!

From the definite increase of volume in the battle cries, Wingless and Astrid knew that the Lava-Louts had landed on the docks. Both girls were sick with worry; why were they here? What did they want? What could they possible need from the tiny Island of Berk?

Finally Wingless landed, just in front of Hiccup, who was sprinting down from the East-side of the Village, away from Fishlegs' house. A look of utter relieve crossed his face when he saw Astrid safe and sound.

"Wingless, where's Toothless?" he asked, out of breath. He was answered by panicked flailing towards the cliff where he'd seen them before. "Back there? What's he doing!"

"Just get on! Wingless came here to get you!" Astrid snapped, grabbing her husband by the arm and yanking him up onto the dragon's back. You ask far too many questions for your own good!

"Don't I know it," he said dismally. Wingless didn't know what he meant by that, but she took off anyway, and started flying towards where she'd left Toothless. From the sky she could see the black fireproof-clad Lava-Louts charging at the village's warriors, some riding their terrible boney dragons, some on foot. Berk's warriors were on dragon-back, too, but no dragon on Berk could compare in size to the gargantuan dragons the Lava-Louts had. Wingless' stomach dropped; how was anyone going to survive!

* * *

Toothless paced nervously as he waited for Wingless to bring Hiccup back. He hated this; not being able to do anything! He wanted to help so desperately; those Lava-Louts were going to pay when he could fly!

It wasn't long before he saw the shape of Wingless flying overhead. And to his relief, Hiccup was on her back! Toothless almost bowled Wingless over as she landed, trying to get at Hiccup!

"Okay, okay! I'm fine! Stop that, you useless reptile!" Hiccup said, almost smiling as Toothless licked his face. "This is serious Toothless!" The Lava-Louts were advancing on the village, and had already set two houses on fire with their skeleton dragons. Hiccup finally succeeded in pushing Toothless down, and then hopped onto his back, clicking his metal leg into the stirrup and urging the dragon to take off. But before Toothless would even raise a wing, he looked over at Wingless and whined. He was worried about her, too. From the way her skin was smooth and unscarred, he doubted she'd ever been in a big battle like this before.

Wingless just flicked her ears to acknowledge his worries. She WAS scared stiff! She'd never fought anything before, not even her Mother! She didn't like conflict, but it looked as if she'd be doing most of the fighting for the village! Damn Freya! Why couldn't she have turned her into a Terrible Terror? They didn't do anything!

Toothless bumped his head against Wingless' shoulder, and then, setting his eyes on the skeleton dragon, took off into the air. Wingless wasn't a hatchling (he assumed) she could take care of herself.

"Look, it's my Dad!" Hiccup called out, pointing at the ground. Toothless looked down, and indeed, there was Stoick, swinging away with a huge hammer, hitting everybody who didn't hit him first. "Toothless, take us down!" Down was one of the commands Toothless actually understood, and he dove towards the crowd of Vikings. Anyone from Berk who was sown there immediately moved out of the way, knowing Toothless was in the habit of not watching where he was landing, but the Lava-Louts didn't know that. As Toothless came to a stop in front of Stoick, he took out maybe five Lava-Louts and caused one of the skeleton dragons to lose its balance and topple over. Hiccup leaned forward and shouted at his dad.

"What's going on! Why are they here!"

"Don't know, don't care!" Stoick replied, turning and clobbering another one of the enemies. "Just grab a weapon and attack, son!" Hiccup wasn't very strong, and he knew if he picked up an axe he'd probably just drop in on his foot, so he and Toothless took off again. "I guess we gatta do this the hard way." He murmured.

Toothless knew exactly what had to be done. As soon as they were up and out of the reach of the skeleton dragons, he let off one of his fire-bursts, catching an enemy dragon off guard and sending it flying over the docks and into the water. Toothless snickered; if he was wet, he couldn't light any more houses on fire! And there was already four by that time.

Hiccup and Toothless continued to try and blast the dragons back into the water, and Hiccup had to yell at Snotlout for setting one of the Lava-Lout's ships on fire. "We have to leave them a way to leave! We don't want them to stay!" he'd shouted. They'd been flying and shooting off enemies for about ten minutes before Toothless crossed Wingless' path again. Astrid and Wingless seemed to be taking a rather different approach then them; instead of trying to blow the Lava-Louts off the island, Wingless was swooping down and bowling as many as she could over, while Astrid would grab one by the collar, and when Wingless had gained altitude again, she'd drop them, all the while shouting.

The smell of fire and blood filled the air, and all the noise was making it hard for Toothless to fly straight, but Hiccup did the best he could. Their efforts weren't helping like they'd hoped, though, because even if one ship-load of Lava-Louts pushed off the docks to flee, another would break the horizon and a whole new wave of Louts would press on! And while the Louts kept getting new warriors, fresh on the fight, Berk still had the same worn-out, battle-scarred Vikings as before.

"This is bad," Hiccup shouted as Toothless bowled into an enemy dragon, causing it to teeter backwards. "This is very, very bad!" Toothless didn't know what Hiccup wanted him to do; obviously, this plan wasn't working they way they thought it was going to work and they needed to think quick before the fight was completely lost! Toothless searched the crowd of Louts, wondering if their leader was among them (As a wild Dragon, he'd visited the volcano island where they lived and seen their leader; Hairy and Fat, like most Vikings, but had a missing eye and let the socket remain empty, to scare his subordinates.) and that was when he turned his attention to the ships. He chased his trajectory and started for the boats that were coming to bring new Lava-Louts into the equation.

"What are you- Toothless, you're a genius! ASTRID!" Hiccup patted Toothless's head and called over his shoulder. "FOLLOW US!" Wingless heard this and started out into the open water behind Toothless. Pulling up next to him, Astrid leaned over and gave him a worried glance.

"What are we doing?" she called over the howl of the wind.

"See that?" Hiccup asked, pointing to the new ship approaching. "We're ganna sink it." A smile spread across Astrid's face, and she and Wingless sped forward.

"As always, great plan!" she praised. Wingless swallowed hard, and then, when Astrid instructed her to, she dove and let off another fire-burst. Toothless did the same; one burst hitting the mast and one hitting the hull. The mast made a loud cracking noise and the sail fell from it, and the boat creaked ominously. "Yes! Bulls eye!"

"It's not over yet," Hiccup warned, just as another skeleton dragon took off from the deck of the ship. "Looks like this is ganna turn into an air-fight." The flaming dragon screeched and went after Wingless.

"RRRR!" Toothless rumbled, jerking mid-air to try and go after the enemy, but Hiccup pulled him back to the boat.

"No; Astrid'll be fine. We have to make sure that ship doesn't make it to the shore!" When Toothless looked up at his rider, he could see the absolute anguish in his face; he obviously was worried about Astrid, just like Toothless was worried about Wingless. He didn't want to leave them anymore than Toothless did, but they had to do this, to make sure the Village had even a slight chance at beating off the attackers. So, reluctantly, they swooped down and Toothless fired another shot at the hull, breaking another hole in it and causing the whole boat to sink about a foot deeper in the water. It was sinking, but not as fast as it was moving forward! At this rate, they'd make it to the shore just in time!

No! Toothless wouldn't let it! Flapping upwards, he got as high as he could, and then, flipping so his nose was pointed down, he folded in his wings and took a spinning dive at the ship. He was planning on ramming the ship head on, breaking through the middle and cracking the entire thing in half. Hiccup had guessed as much. He knew it would probably hurt. A lot. But he knew this was probably the only way to make the ship sink in time, so he closed his eyes and waited for the impact.

The impact never came, though. Toothless was about 50 feet above the ship, reaching speeds he'd never reached before, when an ear-shattering scream broke through his concentration. It was Astrid! Without thinking, Toothless unfolded his wings to catch himself as he fell, forgetting about the plan, and whipped his head up to see what had caused the scream. The Skeleton dragon had Wingless by one of her back legs, and was shaking her around by it. But Astrid was no longer on her back; she was falling towards the water, head first.

"ASTRID!" Hiccup screamed, using the stirrup on Toothless' saddle to try and turn the dragon back up. Toothless' legs actually landed on the deck of the ship, to his and the Lava-Louts surprise, and when he rocketed back up into the air, he cause the whole boat to rock back and forth.

Toothless intercepted Astrid's fall, catching her on his back, and quite possible knocking the air out of her lungs, but she was safe. Hiccup almost cried as he hugged his wife to his chest, but Toothless wasn't quite done with the heroics. Wingless still had to be saved.

* * *

Frigma kicked the vile dragon in the snout with her free back leg, hitting him hard in the eye….socket. He didn't actually have eyes, so Frigma didn't understand how he could see, but the fact of the matter still remained; he had her leg in his jaws and was shaking her around by it. She could hear the bones pop out of place as she was shaken to and fro, but she didn't feel the pain; only rage.

"_How DARE you knock Astrid off!"_ she thought furiously, accompanying her thoughts with a string of roars and shrieks. "_You will pay for this, I swear by Odin, you will-OOUCH!"_ her inner monologue was interrupted as she was thrown downwards and hit the waves with a loud SMACK! Struggling to right herself as she sunk in the water, she beat her wings and found that they were actually useful swimming tools! She broke the surface, only to see the skeleton diving down towards her. There was only one thing to do.

She opened her mouth and tried to ignite another fire-burst, but, nothing happened. No matter how angry she felt, no matter how she tried, she couldn't get the fire to burn! What was going on! All she could do was cover her head with her front legs as the skeleton dragon barreled into her, pushing her under the water again.

"_Ha! Imbecile! Now you can't blow fire either!" _she thought smugly, kicking up towards the air. She was inches from the surface, and the skeleton's teeth clamped around her tail and yanked her back down again. Every time she tried to get up to take a breath, he yanked her back down again, causing her to let a little air go every time. She was starting to get dizzy from lack of oxygen, but found she could hold her breath for a longer time now than when she was human. "_Let me go, you stupid, senseless idiot! Let me go!"_

Her struggling amounted to nothing, and she was getting light-headed. She needed to breathe!

* * *

Toothless tried to catch Wingless as she was thrown into the water, but was too late, and she was already down. He couldn't dive down after her, either, the Skeleton whizzed past him and proceeded to drag her even farther down under water.

"Toothless, don't!" Hiccup pleaded, knowing what his Nightfury was planning on doing, and not loving the idea of diving into the freezing cold ocean. But Toothless didn't obey his rider. The sting of the cold water didn't even reach Toothless, and once under, he scanned his green surroundings. He saw a flick of movement to his left, and started paddling like mad to get to where Wingless and the skeleton dragon were struggling against each other under the water. Once he got close enough, he realized the enemy dragon had no rider, and was acting on its own accord. This was revolting to Toothless; Dragons didn't do this to other dragons; not since the queen had been overthrown! There was a mutual understanding between the reptilian species, one of peace and tolerance, but this dragon was trying to drown Wingless, because it felt like it!

This made Toothless angry to no end. But he couldn't do much at the moment, he'd almost forgotten that Hiccup and Astrid couldn't hold their breaths as long as he could, and he had to get them to the surface as quick as he could so they wouldn't drown themselves! But as soon as he'd done that, he'd made sure that Hiccup's leg was unattached to the stirrup, and dived again, leaving his confused riders at the surface of the water.

"_Sorry, Hiccup,"_ he thought, swimming down towards his friend. "_But right now, this is more important."_ It was weird to think that way, for Toothless. Nothing in the past ten years had been more important than Hiccup, but now Toothless felt this drive to turn his attention to Wingless. It made him feel dreadfully guilty, and he hated that.

Wingless' eye were glazing over by the time he reached her, her tail in the jaws of the sinking skeleton dragon. Toothless started clawing at the boney snout of his enemy, but his claws didn't seem to have an effect on him; he didn't even blink! (Well, how could he?) But when Toothless lashed out with his back foot, smashing it into the dragon's teeth, it snapped it's head back and a cascade of bubbles flew from his mouth, and most importantly, Wingless was free!

She didn't move though. Even when she opened her mouth, no bubbles escaped, and what Toothless feared seemed to be true; she didn't have any air left, and was drowning! He went into action, making sure the skeleton dragon was distracted by his broken teeth, he grabbed Wingless by the scruff of her neck and kicked upward, trying to drag her to the air. She was heavy, but she wasn't struggling, and they finally broke the surface. Toothless let Wingless go and gasped for breath, but Wingless just slumped back down into the water, her eyes closed. It didn't even register to Toothless that there was something wrong with her until Astrid and Hiccup swam over, and Astrid started to panic!

A screech was heard over head, but when all three beings in the water looked up, it wasn't another skeleton dragon, it was Tuffnut and Ruffnut on their Zippleback, followed by three other Vikings on dragon-back.

"We saw you from the Island!" Tuffnut called, circling overhead. "We'll take it from here; you guys head back. They could use your help on the mainland!" Hiccup nodded, but Astrid was still trying to shake her dragon awake while treading water.

"Wake up! Wingless! I order you to wake up this instant!" But Wingless didn't hear her hysterical cries. She was much too far away to hear anything.


	23. Chapter 23: Knocked Out, Part Two

**Double Post Day! Actually, this was meant to be in chapter 22, but it ended up making it so long that I had to chop the whole thing in half and make it two chapters!**

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**Chapter Twenty Three: Knocked Out, Part Two**

Frigma woke with a start.

"AARRG!" she shouted, swinging her arm around absent-mindedly as she sat bolt right up. Her arm circled around and ended up hitting her in the face, and that was what finally alerted her to her whereabouts.

First off, the arm that had hit her was her own arm. No, not her dragon-arm, it was her _human_-arm! Second-off, she wasn't being dragged under water by a terrifying dragon; she was sitting in the familiar forests of Berk. In fact, it was a bit too familiar; it was at the base of a very tall and very old tree! She knew that tree; it was the tree she'd fallen asleep under the night she'd been turned into a dragon!

She tried to stand up, pushing off the ground with her front legs-er, arms, but her back legs, well, now just legs, couldn't seem to keep her balanced, and she toppled backwards, landing on her but. When she looked down at herself, she saw she was wearing the clothes she'd been wearing the night she'd been changed. They felt weird and uncomfortable rubbing against her scales-oh, she kept doing that! Skin! She had skin, not scales!

She blew the hair out of her eyes (another thing she wasn't used to having) and tried again. This time, she was able to stand, while leaning on the tree for support. Why was all this so hard? She'd only been a Nightfury for six months, who would have thought half-a-year would make you forget how it feels to wear clothes or walk on two legs?

"Finding this hard, my dear?" a sickeningly familiar voice rang out behind Wingle….Frigma, and she turned, wobbling, to face the Goddess Freya. She was clothed in a white dress that looked like the moon and the stars had all fallen to the ground and collected on the fabric. Her hair was tied in an elaborate knot on top of her head, and she was carrying a satchel over one shoulder. "It's surprising how much you forget in such a short amount of time, isn't it?"

Frigma opened her mouth to reply, but she heard nothing, even though she was sure she'd made a sound. Listening closer, she realized she couldn't hear the sounds of the forest around her, and she was back to being deaf again. So, instead of embarrassing herself by trying to speak, she just thought her questions to the Goddess, knowing she'd hear them.

"_What am I doing here?"_ she asked, meaning to lower her ears but found they were no longer on the top of her head. "_Where's Toothless? Where's the skeleton dragon?"_

"Patience, my child!" Freya answered, waving her hand to silence Frigma's thoughts. "All will be answered soon enough. Now tell me; why do you keep thinking about moving muscles that aren't in your body? You were thinking, not a moment ago, to lower your ears, were you not?" Frigma frowned.

"_Well, yes, but that's just-"_

"Before I spoke, you were about to complain about standing on two legs. Is this also correct?"

"_Yes, but I-"_

My poor, ignorant child; there is a reason for your reaction. I live with the mischievous God Loki; in our day, we've turned plenty a Viking into a dragon." Frigma raised her eyebrows disbelievingly. "Oh dear Frigma, I was quite the prankster back then. But for every Viking we transformed, he never adapted well. Maybe one or two learned how to fly and could survive, but he'd always forget he was dragon, and when he saw his old friends, he'd rush right up to them, only to be killed. Or some would throw themselves over a cliff for the disdain they felt towards their new bodies. Every single Viking; that is, until you."

"_Was I just a prank?" _Frigma thought, putting two and two together. "_Something for you and the other damn Gods to laugh at!"_

"No, no! You've misread my intentions! Dear, you are the first Viking I have ever seen adapt so well to their new body, to their new self! And do you know why that is, child?" Frigma shook her head no. Freya let out a tinkling laugh, and withdrew from her satchel a small golden orb. It was shiny and Frey agave it a small push into the air, and when she moved her hands away, it stayed, suspended in the air. It even rotated slightly.

"_What is that?"_ Frigma thought, reaching out to touch the orb.

"This is my golden eye." Freya responded, touching the orb herself, and across its surface, she sent a succession of tiny ripples. When the ripples cleared, the orb was clear, and a number of moving figures sat in the middle. It was like looking at another world through water, or a mirror. Frigma stumbled forward, having to take Freya's hand to make sure she didn't fall. They both peered into the orb, and saw a tiny, five year old Frigma, dancing around her mother, skittering along inside the orb. Frigma gasped.

"I can see the past, the present, and the future of my loved ones in this orb," Frey said, letting Frigma watch her tiny self play in the orb. "What do you see?"

"_I see myself, and my Mother. I was…happy."_ Freya smiled weakly, and touched the orb again, changing the picture. This time, it was of an older Frigma, closer to her current age, struggling to haul a basket of linens up a hill.

"Now what do you see?"

"_Me, maybe a year ago. I'm doing chores."_

"Where you happy?"

"_I wasn't _un_happy." _Frigma looked up at Freya, who had the wisdom of a thousand years dancing in her eyes.

"I see." She again touched the orb. This time, a crying Frigma was shown, collapsed at the base of a tree, wailing and beating her fists on the ground. "You recognize this, don't you?" Freya asked, hugging Frigma to her side. To Frigma, the Goddess' skin felt warm and soft, like how fire had felt on her fire-proof scales as a dragon. She nodded yes to the question. "And do you remember what you asked of us Gods that night?" This time, Frigma shook her head no. "You asked us why we had created you broken. My dear," Freya sighed. "We did create you broken; it was a mistake on our part. But before you speak," she held up a hand to silence Frigma's thoughts, "you were broken in a way you never would have imagined as a human. We indeed put you in a body that did not serve your life's purpose."

Frigma's mind was whizzing around like a swarm of angry bees! What did this mean? Was Freya going to fix her? Was she going to be human again? Freya reached back into her satchel, and this time, pulled out a little creature. It was gray and looked like salamander; but it had wings. With a start, Frigma realized she was looking at a miniature version of herself. Or, her dragon self at least.

"There is a reason you just identified this dragon as yourself in your mind." Freya said, letting the tiny dragon fly from her hand and land in the outstretched palms of the human. "Frigma; this was the body intended for you. We messed up; we aren't too proud to admit it; we put you in the wrong body; this was your intended form from the beginning.

"_What…what does this mean!" _Frigma thought, almost dropping her tiny self. "_I'm actually _supposed_ to be a scaly dragon!"_

"Yes." Freya said shortly, taking the tiny dragon from her hands and putting it back into her satchel. "Think about it Frigma! You're a smart girl; why does it feel so easy now to fly? It usually takes years for hatchlings to get the movements down, and it's only taken you a matter of months to find a way to beat the system! A few more months of practice, and you might be getting Toothless to fly by himself!"

"_But I….I can read! And write!"_

"Because you started out as a human. Dragons don't learn those things as hatchlings, but who's to say they can't learn ever? Nobodies bothered to teach them.

"Listen," Freya could sense Frigma's confusion. "I want you to look into the Golden Eye once more and tell me what you see." Frigma did what she was told, and saw herself, as a dragon, sleeping next to Toothless, his wing pulled out to cover her. Her face was a contented neutral, and her tail was twitching slightly; she was dreaming there.

"_I see me and Toothless, sleeping."_ As soon as she thought this, the image changed, and it was, this time, her and Toothless kicking up snow together. "_And, me and Toothless playing together."_ Once more the image changed, and this time it was of Toothless bumping her shoulder, right before the battle, and giving her a loom she hadn't noticed when she had actually been there. It was a weird look, like fright and confusion combined. Like the look a Mother would give a child as they went off into battle, or the look Hiccup had given Astrid when they'd been forced to split up when the battle started. "_And I see…"_

"I know what you see." Freya said softly, hugging Frigma tighter. "When were you happier; in the 22 years as a deaf human, or in the six months you've spent as a Nightfury, accepted by your friends and loved by your companion? And there's no way you can lie to me." Frigma didn't even have to organize her thoughts into words; both she and the Goddess already knew the answer. There was no competition; as a human, every day had been an uphill-struggle, but as a dragon…things were so much easier. Everything just seemed to fall into place….like it was….meant to be…oh.

"Now you see, my child. And now, I have to ask you a very important question. Now that you have made it to the mountain top, so to speak, what will you choose? Will you decide to travel back down the mountain, to the place you once called home, to the people and faces you'll never truly understand and who will never truly understand you; or will you choose to stay in a place that is completely new to you, but hold so many more opportunities for you to fly or flop?" Frigma knew Freya was asking her if she wanted to be a human again, or if she wanted to remain a Nightfury. And when she put it in that way, how could Frigma say anything else.

* * *

Frigma opened her eyes slowly, wanting to hold on to the dream a little longer. The Goddess' last word were still ringing in her ears; "It's only natural you'd make this choice; it's in your blood." In her blood. Huh. At the moment, that seemed to be the only thing Frigma could smell.

"Toothless, get out of the way! I have to set the bones!"

"Toothless, do as she says!"

"Ow! Hiccup, you're stupid dragon bit me!" She flinched away from the loud noises; her head hurting like someone had hit her with a sledge-hammer. She let out a groan and loved her front legs to cover her head, but found she couldn't move them. Panicking, she started trying to move her other limbs, but only one leg would move! What was happening!

Toothless was standing protectively over Wingless, growling and snapping at anyone why tried to touch her. He'd dragged her all the way to the shore, and hadn't left her side since then. The battle had still been going on, but with no new Louts to fill the slots dead enemy warrior's spots, they started falling back, an eventually, after Stoick had captured a few prisoners to question, most of the Lava-Louts had fled. The Vikings of Berk had rejoiced, except for Toothless. Wingless was still out cold by the time the battle came to an end, and he was growing increasingly worried. Dragons shouldn't stay unconscious for long; unless there was something seriously wrong!

But as soon as Wingless started trying to move around, Toothless jumped right out of his skin with happiness! She was okay! She wasn't dead!

But he still wasn't going to let that wretched woman touch her! The healer had come to look at Wingless' legs, three of which were undoubtedly broken (only two came from the skeleton dragon; the other one came from when Toothless dropped her on the shore and she'd landed wrongly on that leg), but Toothless knew how cruel that healer was! She'd set one of his broken wings a few years back, and had been so ungentle and mean, he didn't want her anywhere near his Wingless.

_His_ Wingless. He didn't usually refer to people as 'his'; the only one he did do that to was Hiccup. Astrid was close, but she was still Hiccups. Wingless was his, though, even if she continued to snap at him and refuse to accept his blind shows of love; she was his. He'd saved her, after all. He thought that was grounds enough.

"Toothless, you damn dragon! Her legs aren't ganna work unless you move away from her!" The healer shouted, swatting at his wings, which were covering the waking Wingless. She'd just opened her eyes, and upon finding that she couldn't move her limbs, was starting to struggle. Toothless let out a growl and refused to step away.

"Toothless, you're only ganna end up hurting her!" Hiccup pleaded, trying to haul him away by his saddle-harness. "You realize she won't walk again if the bone aren't set quickly, don't you?"

Frigma shook her head, trying to organize her thoughts. Okay, she was on sand; so that meant she was on the shore. Okay, that was good. She hadn't drowned! Alright, secondly…was that Toothless? He was protecting her from, well, something. Something he kept growling at. Check. Now, to deal with her legs…

She listened as Hiccup and the Healer tried to get Toothless to move, and how he wouldn't budge, and finally, not loving the idea of being crippled her whole life, kicked Toothless away with her one good leg. He yelped and stared questioningly at her, but this gave the healer a chance to swoop in at start to set her legs straight.

Ouch. OWW! OUCH! She couldn't believe how painful this was beginning to be! The healer had no qualms about snapping things back into place, and she was not gentle about it at all! Toothless skirted around them nervously, squeaking and yowling here and there.

"_You-!"_ Frigma thought through bared teeth, "_You're not making things better by doing that!"_

* * *

Toothless looked over the second floor landing at Wingless. She was sitting by the fire, dozing. Her front legs were all wrapped up, along with her back left leg, and her wings were bent and bruised. Well, all that was to be expected from a dragon who'd only nearly escaped death.

Stoick had interrogated the Lava-Lout prisoners as to why they attacked, and the only answer he'd gotten was "Why not?" That had made Hiccup mad, Toothless could tell. Not only had Wingless been injured, but a few Vikings from the village had been killed, and the whole Northern flank of the Village had been burnt to the ground.

As soon as Wingless had been put inside, she'd fallen asleep, and that had given Toothless time to formulate one last plan. He looked at his feet, in which he held a small string of beads. Wingless had been holding these beads when they'd first found her, and Hiccup had taken them away, for whatever reason, and hidden them in his dresser. He hadn't done anything with them, just taken them, so Toothless figured they were up for grabs. So, when Hiccup and Astrid had left to go help with the village repairs, he'd dug through the dresser and found them. Wingless had been mad when they'd been taken from her, and now, he thought they'd make the perfect present to impress her. They were his last hope.

He crept down the stairs, avoiding the steps he knew creaked and belly-crawled up until he was right beside Wingless. Careful not to startle her, he nudged the side of her face with a foot, the beads resting on the floor in front of him.

Wingless raised her head sleepily, blinking away any dreams she must have been having, and started to try and focus on Toothless. He barked a greeting to her, and then shoved the beads towards her, before backing away, in case she didn't like them and tried to hit him with her tail like she usually did. But Wingless just stared for a moment.

And then, after the moment was up, she shoved the necklace into the fire in front of her! Toothless got ready for the slap and the mean looks, he even closed his eyes, but nothing happened. In fact, he had to open his eyes to see Wingless looking right at him, eyes wide, head tipped slightly. He was confused, until she scooted, with her one good leg, into his side and laid her head back down on her legs.

* * *

Frigma didn't regret it.

Her Mother had given her those beads. But, when she thought about what those beads had meant to her; the last claim she had to humanity, they lost their significance. She _wasn't_ a human, and never truly was. She was a Nightfury, now and forever, and she didn't need the beads. Not anymore.

She leaned into Toothless' side, watching the wooden trinket smolder in the fire. She knew he was probably confused. She was too. But she also knew things would eventually work out. As a dragon, they always did.


	24. Chapter 24: What He Doesn't Know

**Y'all thought it was done and over with, didn't you? Well, you're wrong! Haha! But it is coming to a close. We have a few more chapters (And I'm thinking I'll make a sequel! XD)**

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**Chapter Twenty Four: What he doesn't know**

Frigma sat outside the forge, waiting for Astrid. She'd gone in to tell Hiccup they'd be accompanying the merchant ships to the next island over, the Bog Burglar's domain, and probably wouldn't be back until tomorrow.

Astrid had told Frigma on the way over that she had some friends there, and the merchant ships didn't often trade with the Bog Burglars, so she wanted to take the chance to see them this year. Frigma didn't mind; it meant they'd be able to ride the ships there; she was only going so Astrid would have a way home, because the ships would not be returning to Berk until the fall. But Astrid said that the Island wasn't very far away, and that the fly back home would be fairly easy, as long as the weather held.

It was the tail end of spring, and the weather was looking sort of nice this year. Especially after last year, when it rained all spring and the sun only showed itself during the fall. Frigma wasn't worried about flying home, she'd been doing a lot of practicing in preparation for this.

It had been two months since the Lava-Louts uncalled-for attack (Stoick never did get a good reason out of the prisoners for the bloodshed) and Frigma's legs, albeit a little stiff, where doing fine. She'd been up and about for two weeks now, though Toothless kept trying to keep her in the house. She didn't appreciate the protectiveness much, but she knew he meant well. Maybe.

"Alright, we're in the clear." Astrid said as she exited the forge. "Though, even if he'd said no, I still would have gone. He's my husband, after all, not my Father." Frigma chortled at this and stood up. She was excited to see the neighboring tribe, she knew from what she'd heard of them that they also were on good terms with dragons, and she might see another Nightfury there.

Ever since the dream (was it a dream? Frigma didn't know) with Freya, Frigma had started to wonder if there were any other dragons like her and Toothless around. There must be, she though. Where were Toothless' parents? Did he have any siblings?

There was one thought that kept crossing her mind, and it was troubling her. Freya had told her that she'd been born in the wrong body, that they'd meant to make her a Nightfury from the beginning, but screwed up and sent her to be a human. And that meant….were there some Nightfury parents out there missing a baby? Did they ever have another hatchling? Did they even know Frigma existed?

She shook her head to clear the thoughts away. No, of course they didn't know. And they'd probably already had another baby; so she decided not to think about it. She followed Astrid as they made their way to the docks, and hoped up onto the merchant ship's deck after her.

* * *

Frigma hated boats. She almost wished she had flown all the way to the Island; as a human, she'd never set foot on a ship, but now….she was practically green! She felt like dying!

"C'mon, that wasn't so bad," Astrid said as they stumbled off the ship and onto solid ground. Frigma had never seen anything as beautiful as ground under her feet! She collapsed on the grass and would not get up for anything! Astrid looked equally green, which puzzled Frigma, because Astrid had gone on a few voyages in her time, and never seemed green when she returned. "I can't believe the most fearsome of dragons gets sea-sick! The mighty Nightfury, brought down by some nausea! You really are some kind of weird dragon, Wingless!"

"_And you are some kind of Viking,"_ Frigma thought. "_You're a sea-fairing people! I think it's even weirder that YOU'RE sea-sick!"_

When Frigma was feeling better, she got up and started walking, though a little shaky, and Astrid and her paraded through the significantly bigger village of the Bog Burglars. Several people called out and waved at Astrid, and it occurred to Frigma that Astrid was probably very popular with several tribes, not just Berk.

Wingless didn't know what the village was called, but it looked sort of like Berk. They even had the same sort of great hall, but theirs wasn't built into the side of the mountain like Berk's. Astrid and Frigma were led into the hall and were immediately greeted by a large, hulking woman with the longest braids either of them had ever seen.

"Astrid, darling!" the woman crooned, sweeping Astrid up into a bone-crushing hug. Usually, Astrid would have just smiled and let herself be crushed (she was tough but polite) but instead, she yelped. It was a weird sound out of Astrid's mouth, waaay too feminine for somebody like her. The woman didn't pay any mind, though, and when she released Astrid (who stumbled back and rubbed her stomach) she then turned her attention to Frigma.

"And who's this beauty of a dragon? Not Toothless, is it?" she crooned, taking Frigma's head in both hands and kissing her forehead.

"N-no, that's Wingless; she's my new dragon." Astrid said, gathering her bearings and standing up straight. "It's really good to see you, Bertha! How long has it been?"

"Too long, my dear, too long! Last time I saw you, you were this tall!" Bertha held up her hand underneath Astrid's nose to show how tall Astrid used to be. "This is a gorgeous Nightfury, Astrid! How did you find her?"

"Well, she sorta found me," Astrid replied, setting her hand of Frigma's head. Bertha let out a loud 'gafaw' of laughter.

"I see, as many good things do! But where's Brute? Is he ill?" Astrid cast her gaze down at her boots, and Frigma whined.

"He's, ah, he's not with us anymore." Astrid said, brushing her nags up and out of her face.

"Oh, dear, I'm so sorry!" Bertha moved forward and patted Astrid on the back, which ended up more like a smack that made Astrid's knees almost buckle over. "It always seems to happen to the best of dragons, doesn't it?" Astrid was silent for a moment more, and then looked up and smiled.

"It's okay. He was in pain, I'm glad his suffering's over. And now I have Wingless, who's great! She really seems to understand me." She winked, not letting on how smart Wingless really was.

"Wingless, eh? How'd you come up with a name like that?" Bertha asked, taking Astrid by the shoulder and leading her farther back into the hall.

"It's a looong story!"

* * *

Astrid had spent the whole day visiting her friends, one of which was a skinny girl with strawberry blonde hair called Camicazi, who Frigma liked because she gave her some honey (her new favorite food). And now, the two were sitting in the loft bedroom of the Cheiftess Bertha's house. Bertha was snoring away downstairs, and Astrid was getting ready for bed.

"She snores more than you and Toothless," she said with an amused tone. Frigma snorted disbelievingly. She didn't snore louder than that! It was almost an insult!

"Rrrrhhhh," she grumbled, jumping up onto the bed and bumping Astrid's shoulder with her head.

"Yeah, yeah, say what you want; you snore like a thunderstorm!" For this, Astrid's earrings were knocked out of her hands and onto the floor. Frigma let out a laugh, and almost didn't see the distraught look on her friend's face. Astrid bent down to pick the earrings up, but when she sat back up, she put her hand on her stomach again. Frigma watched as she rubbed her tummy gingerly, and then jumped off the bed and gave Astrid a questioning stare.

"_What is up with you and your stomach? You've been holding it like that all day!" _she thought. Astrid sighed and pulled her legs up onto the bed and tucked them under her.

"Okay, okay, I get it. I should probably tell somebody, anyway. And since you can't talk, you'd be perfect to keep the secret." She started unbraiding her hair while she spoke. Frigma sat down. "Okay, well, here goes. I think I'm pregnant."

.

.

.

"_WHAT!"_ Frigma almost fell over from surprise! "_Pregnant! A Baby? You're going to have a baby!"_

"I can tell you're surprised," Astrid said, smiling slightly. "But yeah. I mean, I guess it isn't showing yet, but I've been getting really sick lately," now that she mentioned it, Astrid HAD already thrown up four times this week. "And when I asked the healer about it, she said I was probably having morning sickness."

"_Have you told Hiccup!" _she thought, but realized Astrid couldn't read her mind, so she scratched the word 'Hiccup?' into the floor boards.

"Hey, don't so that!" Astrid said, swatting her foot away. "This isn't out house, you know! And no, I haven't told him." She sighed and flopped backwards onto the bed. "I don't know how I feel about all of this. It's not that I don't like kids…it's just….I don't know if I'll be a good Mom or not."

Frigma thought this was silly. Astrid was great with the kids at dragon training! She was nice and treated them like they mattered, unlike how Tuffnut treated them; like they were just little monsters. Frigma jumped back up onto the bed and sat down next to her friend.

"_I think you'll be a great Mother,"_ Frigma thought, wishing that Astrid knew what she was thinking.

"Don't tell Hiccup," Astrid said. "I don't want him to know yet." Frigma lifted her ears. "Why? Oh, I don't know. Just promise you won't tell him." She propped herself on her elbows and gave the dragon a look that clearly said: "Tell anyone and I wills see to it that you are thrown out of the house!" So Frigma just nodded.

"_Whatever. He's your husband."_

* * *

It was already late when the two touched ground outside their house. The sun had been set for about an hour, and most of the lights in the village had gone out; except for the pub and the great hall, which were always noisy and light-filled. Astrid was dead-tired and kept tripping over things, and Wingless was even worse off. A slight rainstorm while flying had blown them off course, and it had taken them hours to get back to Berk.

When they opened the door and went inside, both Hiccup and Toothless came rushing up, both talking and making noises.

"Is everything okay? Oh my Gods, you're soaked! Get in, you'll catch cold! Why are you back so late? Did you get hurt? Is everything all right!" Toothless was making similar noises and shoved Wingless inside. Both females were annoyed, and all they wanted to do was fall asleep, but these two dunderheads weren't letting them get a word in edge-wise!

"Sit down! What took you? I thought-"

"Hiccup!" Astrid finally shoved him away and went to the stairs. "We're fine! Now shut up! You're making my head hurt with all this babble!" Frigma smirked as she went to go sit by the fire, which was barely anything but coals now. Toothless followed closely behind, and when she settled herself down, he curled himself around her and licked her face.

"_I'm so glad you're home!" _he thought, "_Where did you go? I missed you!"_ Frigma was passed the revulsion of the whole licking thing, but she was in no mood to act all lovey-dovey, and hissed at the other Nightfury.

"_I'm too tired to deal with you right now!"_ she thought irritably, and tried to curl up and fall asleep, but Toothless kept up the licking thing. It was starting to get on her nerves.

Hiccup was confused at his wife's reaction, and when he turned around to look at Toothless, he saw that Wingless was giving him just about the same treatment.

"What is wrong with women?" he mumbled under his breath, scratching his head. Astrid poked her head over the landing to glare at him.

"What was that?"

"Nothing!" He held up his hands. "I was just, eheh, mumbling!"

* * *

Frigma had another dream that night.

This dream seemed a lot like the dream she had when she had passed out in the battle with the Lava-Louts, but she could tell it wasn't _really_ Freya in her dream, just a cheap imitation her brain created. In the dream, Toothless was sitting on a grassy hill, the Goddess sitting beside him, patting his head. She was holding something in her arms, but Frigma couldn't see what it was.

She tried to run up the hill, but every time she took a step, she got no closer to the pair at the top. She was almost to the point of exhaustion when a Tiny Nightfury leapt from Freya's hands and bounced down the hill towards her. This Nightfury wasn't just miniature, it was actually young; it looked no older than a hatchling!

The baby dragon bounded right up to Frigma and nuzzled into her side. When she looked down into the dragon's face, she saw he had three little dots under each eye, like her. What was she looking at here? Was this a younger version of her? Or was it…No, it had darker scales. Not quite as dark as Toothless' scales, but somewhere in between his and hers. Was this dragonling….

Frigma woke up to a completely silent house. Toothless wasn't even snoring. She looked down at him, still curled around her, and saw that his eyes were still open. When she looked out the window, she saw that dawn was still hours away.

"Rrrrhhhg," Toothless rumbled, sitting up straight.

"_What? Why are you still awake?"_ Frigma stood up and stretched, and then walked towards the door. She figured she'd only been sleeping for a few hours, but she knew she couldn't go back to sleep. She now had much too much to think about. So she nosed the door open and walked out.

She decided the best place to think would be out and away from the village. All the houses made her feel too closed in. So she made her way through the forest, past the tall tree from her memories, and to the cliff on the other side of the Island. It took her only about thirty minutes to get there, but by the time she arrived, she was already tired again!

She sat down on the grass, soft and untouched by Viking boots, and folded her wings on either side of her. She sat like that for some while, watching the moon float in the sky, stars dancing around it. She'd never really seen the moon from this side of the island (well, she had, but back then she didn't care as much) and realized it looked absolutely beautiful up in the sky. It was round and white and perfect.

It wasn't until the moon had travelled half-way back down the sky and most of the stars had blinked out that she heard the rustling. At first it was soft, and she thought it was probably the wind, but it steadily grew louder and more incessant. Finally, she turned her head just in time to see Toothless come tumbling out from the bushes. She jumped up momentarily, not recognizing him at first, but settled back down when she realized it was just her clumsy companion. His fake tail-fin was bent out of shape, and she figured he'd caught it on something and had been trying to pull it free.

Her thoughts were pretty blank at this point. It was hurting her head to think too much, and as Toothless approached, embarrassed looking by his ungraceful entrance, she just stared at him blankly. His eyes were almost as big as the moon.

He sat down next to her, and looked up at the moon. He tipped his head, trying to see what she'd been staring at. To him, it was just the moon; he saw it every day, so it was nothing special. But he knew it had to mean something to Wingless, and so he tried to see it the way she did. As he concentrated, she leaned into his side and sighed. When he looked back down at her face, he saw that her eyes were clouded and unseeing. She looked sad.

It was then that he remembered why he'd followed her. He bent down and touched his nose to hers, and she didn't flinch away like she usually did. Her expression didn't change.

Toothless couldn't even remember why he'd hated Wingless when he had first seen her. He couldn't remember why he'd attacked her, why he'd shoved her away, why he'd given her the scar on her leg. All he could seem to remember the way she cared about Astrid when she'd run into the forge crying, the way she played in the snow with him like nothing else mattered, the way she would snuggle into his side to sleep, the way her scales glistened perfectly in the moon light. The feeling he felt for Wingless was something like what he felt for Hiccup, but it was so much deeper, he didn't even have thoughts to explain it. All he knew was that he hoped she'd always stay by his side. He hoped she felt the same way for him.

Frigma didn't know why this was so weird for her. If what Freya had said was true, than loving Toothless should have been natural. She wasn't a human, after all, and she'd never really been one. In fact, it should have been weirder for her to think about loving another human, but for some reason, she kept rejecting the idea that she had feeling for this dragon.

"_Damn Gods! If they'd just put me in this body to begin with, none of this would matter!"_ she thought bitterly But she knew it wouldn't have been the same. If she'd been born a dragon, would she even know what love was? Or would she only feel instinctual emotions; anger and happiness and sadness? Did dragons even feel love? They must, she thought, because Toothless wasn't just treating her like a friend. She honestly thought he was in love with her, and….there was a strong possibility that she was in love with him.

So, deciding to shut her brain off for the rest of the night, she closed her eyes. No more thinking, no more rationalizing. Dragons didn't do that. No, all that there was, was just Toothless and Wingless, two dragons, staring at the moon.

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**Vague Vague chapter! You decide what you think happened! XP ****-^_^-**


	25. Chapter 25: Not Joking

**We're on the down-hill run here! Just a two more chapters to go!**

**All you awesome reviewers are so wonderful! I love opening my email and reading your reviews! You guys are why I continue to write! I love you all!**

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**Chapter Twenty Five: Not Joking**

There was simply no denying it; Frigma was getting even fatter!

Even Astrid started to notice. Not that she wasn't getting fatter, either. She was only in her second month and she already had a little bump in her stomach. Whenever Hiccup questioned her about it, Astrid would start yelling and saying she was just bulking up for winter. Frigma still didn't understand why she didn't want Hiccup to know, a baby was a good thing! But Astrid had made her promise not to tell. So she would keep her mouth shut, but sooner or later she thought, it was going to seriously start showing, and there wouldn't be any question.

But Frigma's fat was just from eating too much. Lately, even more so than usual, she was just scarfing down fish! Even raw fish, which she normally wouldn't touch. But now, anything and everything even remotely food-like was good enough for her and it all went down her throat.

"Wingless is gaining some weight," Astrid once commented to Hiccup. Hiccup, being a man and not wanting the dragon to get angry, denied having noticed anything, but it was true. Her little stomach was not pretty round. And she hated it.

She tried to lose the weight, she really did! But her wings were always sore these days, and so were her feet. Poor Frigma had no idea why she was so disabilitated, but she felt so useless! It was a good thing Astrid had sworn off flying until the baby was born; Frigma felt bad whenever she had to decline from a flying session.

Toothless, of course, was oblivious to everything. He ate mountains of food himself, so he didn't even notice the extra intake by Wingless. To dragons, weight wasn't really an issue like it was for humans; in fact, the fatter a dragon, the healthier it was assumed to be. He was just happy Wingless had gotten her appetite back, in the months when she'd been healing from the attack, she had barely eaten anything.

But it really wasn't long until the few extra pounds Frigma was carrying turned into a solid lump in her belly. One day, it was squishy and presumably just fat, and the next day, it felt like she'd swallowed a huge rock! When she sat down, it bumped up against her ribs and it made it impossible for her to lie on her stomach like she was used to. But the worst part was when her ears were itchy, she couldn't even get her back foot around the stupid lump to scratch them! It was driving her insane!

And on top of all that, Toothless had been acting extremely weird the last couple of days. Frigma still wasn't used to spending a whole lot of time with Toothless; before he'd spent the whole day at the forge with Hiccup, but now it seemed like he was skipping 'work' more often than not! He hung around with Astrid and Frigma more and more, and while Frigma didn't _not_ like this, lately, he'd been even more hover-y than he usually was! Frigma guessed this was natural for him, after all, they were…well, she didn't exactly know what to call their relationship. If they were human, she supposed she'd call him her boyfriend, but since he was not human, and he was neither a boy nor just a friend, that didn't apply. Maybe husband? No, that was also reserved for married people. Well, technically, they would have been classified as mates, but Frigma thought that sounded…..to weird.

But the fact still remained; Toothless was acting strange. Not only did he incessantly try to keep Frigma in the house, he also never let her get any of her own food, and would always follow her out if she went anywhere without Astrid. She guessed he wasn't trying to be malicious or anything, just protective. But protective of what? Even when her legs had been hurt he wasn't this protective! Why such the big change?

There was also one other thing that puzzled Frigma. He kept running around to the back of the house with things in his mouth; branches, leaves, the blanket off of Hiccup's bed, some white-ish material he'd ripped from the dress in the dresser (Frigma KNEW Astrid was going to be mad about that!) just odd things. Frigma had gone to see what he'd been doing with all the weird things, but he was just piling them up. At first, she'd thought he was building some sort of weird nest, but all the tings were just thrown in a big pile. It was just odd, and looking at it made Frigma's head hurt.

So there she sat, despising the mystery lump, by the front door, watching Toothless race around the side of the house repeatedly throughout the day. She guessed this is what passed for fun anymore.

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"Astrid?"

"Hmmm?" Astrid didn't look up from the pile of saddles she was stacking. Hiccup walked to the side of the arena, a slight smile.

"I see you finally dragged the loaner saddles out. Did the trainees do okay with them?" Hiccup had made those saddles a while ago, but Astrid had been refusing to let the kids use them for the longest time.

"No," she said shortly, but there was no anger in her voice. "Like I told you; they need more practice riding bareback first. Plus, none of their mis-behaved dragons would let me put these things on them." Hiccup laughed and bent down to pick one of them up.

"Oh well. They'll learn."

"Maybe." Astrid smirked and gave Hiccup a peck on the cheek. "So you come down just to chat? Or was there a real reason?" Hiccup's smile faltered a little at Astrid's remark.

"Oh, right. Well, y'see, something, er, happened at home and…um, well," He didn't know how to put it, Astrid had been sort of touchy about this kind of subject for a while.

"Spit it out! I have things to do, Hiccup." Astrid said impatiently, tapping her foot. Hiccup had always had a problem saying what was on his mind; he was a very quiet guy. She sometimes wished he'd be a little more outspoken. But then, his shyness was what she thought was so adorable about him.

"Okay okay! Fine, I'm just ganna say it; Toothless had been….um, let's say 'acting strange' lately."

"That's all!" Astrid dropped the last saddle onto the pile and turned to face her husband. "Jeez, you had me worried there for a minute! I thought something had happened to-"

"Astrid, Toothless built a nest. Behind the house."

There was a bit of silence after that. Astrid's mouth was still open as she'd been interrupted mid-word, and Hiccup was looking like he expected Astrid to explode.

"And…why is that important?" She finally said, putting her weight on one leg and blowing her bangs out of her face. "So, maybe he's tired of being cooped up in the house all the time. Let him build a nest; I don't see the problem here."

"I didn't, either, but Toothless wouldn't let me get near, you know. But then I asked Fishlegs, because, well, I just wanted to be sure nothing bad was happening. And he said that…um….well, I'm not exactly sure how you're going to take this, but…"

"Hiccup!" Astrid walked over and grabbed her husband's face in both hands and looked into his eyes. "Stop with all the stuttering! Just tell me, I won't get mad. I promise."

"Alright," he said warily, taking her hands away from his cheeks. "But I'm holding you to that promise. So here it is: Fishlegs and I went back to the house, and the nest was on fire. And there was an egg in the fire."

"An egg?" Astrid almost laughed. "How'd an egg get there?" She would have been worried for the safety of the egg in the fire, if she didn't see it happen every summer. Dragons kept their eggs incubated by putting them in bonfires.

"Eheh, well, I'm guessing Wingless laid it." Hiccup smiled his crooked smile, hoping Astrid would take the news well.

"Oh. My. Gods." She said slowly, realization dawning over her face. "Why didn't you start with that information! My dragon just laid an egg!"

"Hey, you promised not to get mad!"

"I'm not mad, for Odin's sake! Just take me to her! I've got to see Wingless!" Astrid had noticed the lump in Wingless' belly; it had appeared a few days ago, but she hadn't thought about the possibility it was an egg! It was an egg! It was an egg!

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It was official; Frigma wished she'd chosen to be a human again. At least being a human made sense! You carried the stupid baby for nine months and then it popped out! But nooooo, being a dragon just HAD to be complicated! One day, she had a lumpy stomach and a belly-ache, the next, she's laying an egg!

Toothless had been right there, of course, and snatched the egg right up. Frigma wasn't dumb; she knew how dragons incubated eggs, but it still made her squeak in surprise when he dumped the pitch-black oval into the pile of things he'd been collecting and set it on fire. She was actually pretty grateful that Toothless knew how to do all this; she wouldn't have known to start gathering materials for the fire. In fact, she hadn't even realized she'd been carrying the egg! She thought it was just her getting fat, but now that it was out of her, she felt so much lighter! She didn't know how much the egg weighed, but she guessed it must have been heavy.

Toothless must have known about the egg somehow. Maybe he just knew from the way her belly looked, or maybe there was some kind of smell he picked up on. But as soon as he made sure the egg was warming up in the flames, he dashed off, in the direction of the forest. Looking at the pile of flimsy things, Frigma figured he was getting something that would burn for longer than just some skinny twigs and a bed-sheet. Frigma was no Mother (well, now she was) and she didn't exactly know how to take care of an egg, but she was certain somebody needed to guard it, so she sat down next to the fire and curled her tail around it, protecting it from all angles.

Frigma had never spent much time with kids, and she actually liked sitting with the egg, even if what was inside it was far from being conscious of her presence. That didn't matter to her. The initial shock of laying an egg was wearing off, and she was now starting to realize what this actually meant: she was going to be a Mom! She had a baby to take care of, something she'd always wanted!

She'd been sitting with her egg for a few minutes, her eyes half-closed, when familiar foot-steps thundered up the road. In no time, Astrid flew around the corner, almost tripping over her own feet, and stopped in front of the dragon and the fire. Her mouth was hanging open in a giant smile.

"Wingless? Wingless, you laid an egg!" she gasped, almost out of breath.

"_I prefer the term: 'Had a Baby' thank you very much!" _Frigma thought, amused at the expression dancing across her rider's face. Astrid took a few steps forward and peered into the fire, her face full of wonder.

"Wow, I've never seen a Nightfury egg before; I guess I should have figured, but it didn't occur to me that it would be black!" Both females were looking into the fire when Hiccup finally limped over, breathing hard from the hobble up the hill. He, too, smiled when he saw the egg, but put a hand on Astrid's shoulder.

"Astrid, Fishlegs said we shouldn't get too near the-" but Toothless was already charging by the time their heads snapped up. He had probably half a tree dragging behind him when he walked up and saw his people leaning over his egg. He knew they meant no harm, really, but he couldn't stop himself from protecting the egg. He didn't intend to hurt them, just scare them a little. It was more on instinct than anything.

Frigma, on the other-hand, found this rude and inappropriate! She was glad somebody wanted to look at her future baby! Why'd Toothless have to go and run them away? He looked proud of himself as he went trotting back to the fire, but Frigma let him know just how she felt with a smack to the face via her tail-fin.

Toothless just grinned like an idiot and sat down behind her. There really was no ruining his good mood; what kind of dragon _wouldn't_ be happy about the birth of their soon-to-be baby? He almost barked with excitement; he was actually hoping for a little girl. Before the egg had been laid, he'd been sure, if he and Wingless were going to hatch a brood, that he'd want other males, but now that the single egg was already there, there was nothing he would love more than a tiny replica of Wingless!

It did trouble him that there was only one egg. He himself had been in a brood of two, but the other egg had not hatched, and even THAT was unusually small! He'd seen females try and juggle up to four dragonlings at a time, and this single egg was disconcerting. Was something wrong with Wingless that she was only able to produce one? He tried to calm himself down; she was obviously young, and this was probably her first brood. It was probably okay that there was only a single egg. Probably.

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Since there was still so little known about Nightfuries, nobody knew how long it would take this egg to hatch. Hiccup and Fishlegs hypothesized that it would take in-between a week (that of a Nader's egg) and a two months (that of a Gronkle's egg) to hatch. Fishlegs predicted it would take three weeks on the dot, which was the incubation duration of a Monstrous Nightmare, but Astrid thought they were all crazy and that the egg was due to hatch any day. Not that Toothless would let anyone near Wingless or the egg to measure how big it was or anything. It could have turned bright pink with yellow spots for all they knew!

Toothless never attacked children, though, or even teenagers. Kids were always running up while Toothless would be away getting more firewood, and when he'd return, they'd all run away screaming and laughing, but he'd never chase them or growl. He knew the limits, and kids were strictly OFF them.

But, if Hiccup was allowed close enough to see, he would have seen the egg paling. And it was definantly getting smaller; or at least, sicklier. Frigma saw that, and it caused her a lot of stress. She was so worried that the baby was going to die before it got the chance to hatch. She often got mad at Toothless, to his bewilderment, for not being as worried as she was, but he knew there was nothing to fear. He'd seen eggs before, and he knew that Nightfury eggs were supposed to do that.

The shell, when it's first laid, was hard and almost as thick as steel, which was why it needed to shrivel. The baby wouldn't be able to break out unless the shell got weaker. So by three weeks, when Frigma was pulling her scales out and the egg looked sad and gray, Toothless finally rolled it out of the fire. It was ready.

Frigma padded over to his side and shot him a worried glance, but his look of confidence lead her to believe he knew what he was doing. But the dragonling didn't need any help, he was already chipping away at the withered gray shell. Toothless looked ready to burst with pride, and as Frigma realized her baby WASN'T going to die, she donned a giddy smile, too.

Astrid had been walking around the corner, carrying a fish meant for her dragon, when she saw both Nightfuries staring down at what looked like a little rock. It wasn't until a tiny class stuck up out of the rock that the understood what it was that she was seeing.

"HICCUP!"

Half the village showed up just as the tiny creature poked its head out. It was the size of Frigma's foot, and had scales slightly darker than hers but lighter than Toothless'. Its little eyes weren't open yet, but she could tell there were three little dots under each eye. It was the hatchling from her dream!

Toothless stuck his nose down to his baby's level and sniffed it a few times, and the baby, in turn, sniffed him. He let out a chortle of laughter, and glanced back up at Frigma.

"_Hello, my baby," _she thought, as she bent down to inspect the little bundle of scales. It's little head was so round it almost looked like a black tomato! She wondered if his head would always be that round!

There was a strong scent of burnt wood to the hatchling, but there was also another scent; it was faint and almost undetectable, but it smelled vaguely of….Toothless. She gave the youngster another sniff. Yes, it definantly smelled like its father! Did that mean it was a boy?

"Rrrrrggggg!" Toothless barked, lifting his head at the arrival of Hiccup, his face and hands caked in soot. He'd been at the forge like he always was.

"What….oh, guys! You were supposed to wait 'till I got back!" he whined, smiling and walking up to the baby. Toothless felt the need to give a warning growl, but let his friend take the baby in his hands. It was small, all right. "Would you look at that…half of Toothless in you, huh, little guy?" Hiccup held the hatchling up to his face to inspect it. Frigma was worried he'd fall from his hands, but tried to invest as much faith in the boy as Toothless did. "But you still got some of your Mother in you, don't you? You've got those little spots….Hmmm, looks a little small for a boy. But hey, who am I to judge anyone on their size?" The Vikings standing around and gawking laughed at that. So it WAS a boy.

Frigma looked at the baby for a moment longer, thinking about a name. Now that she knew it's gender, she'd have to think up something to call it. She wished Toothless could write too, she hated leaving him out of this decision, but he seemed too enthralled in his new son to care. She thought about what he was to her: he was a gift from the Gods, chosen to be her son. Chosen son.

She started scratching words into the dirt, careful to make it look like she was just dragging her claws through the dirt to the Viking spectators. Nobody by Hiccup seemed to notice, and when he looked down, an eyebrow shot up high onto his forehead.

"You sure you want to name him THAT?" he asked, his voice low so she could hear but no-one else. Frigma let out a grown, and Hiccup leaned away. "Alright, alright, he's your son. And Haakon really isn't a bad name. But I was sort of thinking we could name him something like your name or Toothless'. You know, like a whole family thing!" Frigma cringed at the thought; too tacky! No, Haakon was perfect. Not only was it a perfect name, he was a perfect boy.

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**The name Haakon means 'The Chosen Son'. Just thought I'd clear that up if you didn't catch it! And reviewers rejoice: there will be a sequel!**


	26. Chapter 26: Confession Time

**Sequel is now in development! It's a good one, and unlike this story, I'm actually sticking to a single plot-line! There are a few unresolved problems in this story, and they will carry over into the sequel! Thanks, as always, for your reviews and favs! You guys are super awesome!**

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**Chapter Twenty Six: Confession Time**

Frigma watched as Toothless swished his tail around, letting Haakon chase after it. His eyes had opened about a day after he had hatched, and Frigma was thrilled to see they looked exactly like his father's. He was built like Toothless, too; stocky and strong. He already had a sharp little set of teeth in his mouth, but thankfully, his claws hadn't sharpened yet! Otherwise both parents would probably be missing eyes!

Toothless was a surprisingly good dad! It made Frigma wonder if he'd raised dragonlings before! But he was always so gentle around Haakon, and he always made sure to keep the mischievous little devil from getting into _too_ much trouble! (Though, when both Father and Son broke into the Great Hall and caused a commotion, Frigma didn't really consider that good parenting.) As for Frigma, her job as a Mother was incredibly easy! Haakon was eating fish by sun-set on his hatch day, and he was almost completely aware of his surroundings.

Now, as a human, Frigma had seen other dragonlings. The Naders were the ones that had the most frequent broods (three a year) and Terrors had the largest (between four and seven eggs), so she'd been around her fair share of troublesome hatchlings. But Haakon didn't act like those dragons, he barely acted like a dragon at all! Sure, he roared and flapped his tiny wings and bared his teeth when playing with Toothless, and he LOVED chasing the sheep around, though more often than not, the sheep would end up chasing him! But he also spent an ungodly amount of time sleeping, though Frigma told herself that was normal for young babies. But there was one behavior that worried her in particular. Well, worried isn't the right word; it more like captivated her; and that was Haakon's ability to learn.

Right after winter had ended, Hiccup had tried to teach Toothless how to write, like Frigma. Hiccup was convinced that Nightfuries were smarter than they let on, and that all of the species had the ability to understand human language like she did. Toothless had failed, miserably. He had no idea what Hiccup was doing, but when he saw him scratching out things in the dirt, he ran around, dragging his tail in the dirt and creating 'art' that consisted of one big squiggly line. This led Frigma to believe all dragons were someone dim compared to her and the humans, but, Haakon was starting to show her differently.

About a week after he was hatched, she was 'talking' to Astrid by the side of the house (coincidentally discussing the baby dragon) when her son came stumbling around the corner. Frigma was amused when he saw her etches in the ground and started trying to imitate them, but didn't think he knew what they were. But that very night, Haakon was missing, and when Frigma looked along the side of the house, she found him studying the conversation written in the dust. He sat there for a good thirty minutes, and then Frigma went to scoop him up and take him inside.

Ever since that day, Frigma made sure to leave some words etched around for him to find; simple words, and they were always etched into the material they were written about. 'Wood' was scratched into a stump, 'House' on the side of the house, 'rock' into the side of a boulder. Haakon would bounce around, looking for the words, and when he would find one, he'd let out a yelp and run around in circles before getting tired and continuing his search. Frigma doubted he actually recognized the letters (she figured she'd have to teach those to him somehow) but she was almost positive he knew that the words meant something. Maybe he didn't know what, but he probably knew they held some significance, which was more to say than his Father.

Speaking of Toothless; Frigma would watch him play the same game, over and over with Haakon, and never get bored. If not for the fact that she loved Haakon dearly, she might have actually gotten jealous over all the attention he was getting from Toothless! She knew better, though. Of course Toothless was totally infatuated with his baby; so was Frigma. If she had a choice herself of weather to play with her son or play with Toothless, obviously, she'd pick her son. She figured, once Haakon was a little bit older and a little bit more independent and could have a rider of his own, she'd get Toothless back. And she was willing to wait. She still didn't know the life-span of a Nightfury, so she assumed she had all the time in the world to wait.

* * *

The other Vikings in the village were a big problem for Frigma and Toothless. Astrid and Hiccup were perfectly content to let the dragonling stay with his parents in their house, but not many other people in Berk held the same view. It wasn't that they thought Frigma and Toothless were bad dragon parents or anything; no, it was pure greed that motivated their actions against them. Since Nightfuries were referred to as a 'valuable commodity', many people were upset that the Haddocks got to keep all three of the only Nightfuries that had ever showed up on the Island. And this caused them to keep trying to take Haakon away.

The first attempt made was by a group of small-ish children. Frigma didn't really know what they were trying to do at first; it looked like they wanted to play with the baby. But one of them grabbed poor Haakon, and they all started running. Frigma had to chase them down to free her offspring, who was wailing and trying to wiggle out of their grip. He ended up biting the fingers of his captor, and Frigma had to take a swat on the nose from an angry Mother.

A few more subtle attempts were made, and one man tried to BUY Haakon off of them! But no try was more elaborate or impressing (yet completely devious and under-handed) than that of Ruffnut Thorston.

She came knocking on the door one day, smile plastered on her face. Frigma knew something was up the minute that she-devil came walking up the path; she and Astrid were still at odds with each other, so you didn't just go waltzing up to your nemesis'' house unless there was a good reason. And Frigma had a bad feeling the reason was her son. She scooted his tiny sleeping body closer to hers and shielded him with her wings and Ruffnut got closer. She didn't want to growl and wake him up, but she gave the girl the glare of a life-time. Ruffnut returned it ten-fold before turning back to the house and knocking on the door.

Frigma had seen Astrid go down to the docks earlier that day, so it was only Hiccup home at that time, since Toothless had accompanied Astrid. When the poor unwitting boy opened the door, he was quite surprised to see Ruffnut. Frigma perked her ears to try and listen in on their conversation, but instead, heard the distinct rustle of leaves behind her. She lifted her nose, not wanting to avert her eyes from the suspicious girl, and scented Tuffnut. What was he doing behind the house?

"Hello Hiccup!" Ruffnut said, sounding oddly cheery. "Is Astrid home?"

"Uh, no." Hiccup replied looking nervous. "She's down at the docks. If you need to see her, I'm sure Wingless could fly you down there." He knew that this was the woman who had made his wife so upset, and he didn't want said wife to see him talking to her. Imagining the punishment was too horrible! Frigma turned her glare to him now, clearly sending him the message: 'NO I WON'T!'

"Oh, no, that's fine with me." Ruffnut countered, taking a little step forwards. "I actually needed to talk to you about something, too." One corner of her mouth pulled up into a smirk and she poked his chest playfully. "It's about Astrid and the baby."

"Astrid and who?" Hiccup nervous smile was fading fast. He took a step backwards. "You mean Haakon?"

"What? You mean you don't know?" Frigma could see the evil sparkle in the woman's eyes. Was she about to tell Hiccup Astrid's secret? How did she find out! "You poor man. She doesn't tell you anything, does she?"

"What is this about? Ruffnut, I swear by Thor-" Hiccup was getting angry-nerves. When he didn't know what to do, he usually did this; put up an angry front to try and ward people off. But most people could see right through it.

"Hiccup, I'm sorry I have to be the one to tell you this, but-" Frigma knew that A) Hiccup could NOT find out about Astrid's baby, because for whatever weird reason, Astrid was insecure about the whole pregnancy, and that B) If Hiccup found out, Astrid would blame HER, and Frigma would be in BIG trouble! So, careful not to wake the sleeping baby at her feet, she leapt up and knocked Ruffnut to the ground, cutting the girl off mid-sentence.

But in that same moment, Tuffnut, who Frigma had forgotten about, jumped out from the side of the house and snatched up little Haakon! Frigma had to scramble back up, but she still didn't catch Tuffnut as he scurried off with his prize. Ruffnut snorted with laughter and took off with her twin, sneering at the dumbstruck Frigma as she went.

But what they didn't count on was Toothless and Astrid arriving home at the exact right moment. Toothless saw as his baby was being carted away, and like a bullet, was off after the thieves. They stood no chance against an enraged Father Nightfury, and soon, both were knocked to the ground and pinned under his feet, while a sleepy Haakon was hurried away by his Mother. He hadn't even woken up until he'd tumbled from Tuffnut's hands as the gangly man went down.

Astrid caught up to the two, and glared down at her rivals.

"Just what did you think you were doing," she hissed through clenched teeth. Frigma shielded Haakon from view, and turned her head to make sure her rider was going to be okay. She needed to keep Haakon safe first and fore-most, but that didn't mean Astrid didn't matter anymore.

"What did it LOOK like we were doing, genius?" Ruffnut growled back. She looked just as angry as Astrid, while Tuffnut, on the other hand, looked pale and guilty. "Ug, get OFF you stupid dragon!"

"How DARE you try and make off with that child!"

"He's not a child, and besides, you did a crappy job raising that one," Ruffnut pointed to Frigma who felt like a stake had been driven through her chest. "I just didn't want you to screw the little one up, too!" Astrid went over and grabbed Ruffnut by the hair, looking her straight in the eye.

"Listen here, you sorry excuse of a woman; if you EVER try to hurt my family again, I will NOT show this kind of restrain when dealing with you. And I know you know what I'm capable of doing. We were in training together." She let Ruffnut's head drop back down, and Toothless back up, giving them both a growl. But as Astrid walked back over to Frigma and patted her head, Ruffnut called:

"Quite trying to pretend those dragons are your family! We all know you do it because you can't make one of your own." And after that, Astrid didn't show restraint anymore.

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"I can't believe you almost threw her off the cliff!" Hiccup said softly, holding the raw meat over his wife's eye. As he took the make-shift ice-pack away, he revealed her black and puffy eye, one of the only bruises on Astrid's body from the fist-fight and eventual almost-murder of Ruffnut Thorston.

"Why not? You should have heard what she said, Hiccup! That witch is crazy." Astrid was not sorry about her actions at all. She'd warned Ruffnut, and that infernal woman continued to push the limits. It was her own fault.

"I heard enough." Hiccup said, a bitter twine to his voice. Astrid turned around in her chair to look at him.

"And what's that supposed to mean?"

"Astrid, is there something you're not telling me?" This made Astrid almost jumps! What did he know? What did he think he knew?

"I…I don't know what you're talking about." She finally answered, turning back around.

"I think you know perfectly well, Astrid. You're keeping secrets from me." He stood up and walked over to the window. Outside, Toothless was sitting over Haakon, licking the baby's head furiously, clear fright on his face. He hadn't wanted to show it in front of the attackers, but he was really worried about Haakon. "I didn't keep secrets from you. I took you to ride Toothless, for Odin's sake!"

"I followed you." Astrid put in, her voice small and her eyes cast to the floor. "You didn't take me; I followed you there."

"That doesn't matter!" He whirled around, his face hard, almost angry. He saw his wife, looking downcast, and he instantly started to melt. He didn't want to belittle her; he just wanted answers. "Please just tell me. I hate not knowing things; you know that! If it's such a problem, maybe I can help! But only if you tell me what's wrong!"

"Nothing's wrong!" Astrid burst out unexpectedly. Hiccup was almost knocked backwards from shock at the outburst. "This isn't your problem; it's mine! So just leave it alone, okay?" She had also stood, and taken a few paces towards Hiccup. But as she finished speaking and turned around to leave, he grabbed her wrists. "Hey! What in the world do you think you're doing!" she cried, trying to get loose. She guessed she just never realized it, but now that she thought about it, working at the forge was hard work, and Hiccup had gotten pretty strong!

"No, I won't leave it alone. We're married, Astrid! Why do you think I said 'I do'? Did you think I said that just for show? No, I meant every word of those vows, and I want to help you, no matter the trouble! I promised you, through sickness and health."

"But I'm not sick!" she wailed, struggling away even harder now. "Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, you know me; you know I could break your arms to get out of here, and don't think I-" she was silenced by the kiss. It was a short kiss, barely lasting three seconds, but after it was done, she couldn't find words to speak anymore. She just stood there, mouth agape like an idiot.

"Please. I'm begging you Astrid. Please tell me what's going on." His eyes were pleading now, but his jaw was still set in a stiff frown.

"But I don't know how." Astrid whispered. "How could I tell you that I'm pregnant, and that I've been for nearly three months!"

"You're pregnant!" Hiccup's face broke into a frenzied smile, his eyebrows shooting up his forehead. "You're really pregnant! Why in Thor's name didn't you tell me! Wait," he released his wife's wrists and ran a hand through his hair. "You mean, THIS was the big problem? THIS is what you were so worried about?" He was incredulous. How had she thought this was such bad news? He was thrilled! More than thrilled; he was going to be a Father! He was absolutely ecstatic!

"You don't understand!" she said, a little louder. "I'm not a Mother! How can a baby be a good thing? What if I screw everything up?" she was thinking back to what Ruffnut had said. She didn't want to screw up a child's life because she was a crappy mother! Hiccup didn't see it that way, though.

"Astrid; I seriously don't think you'll be that bad! Look at how Wingless is doing!" he pointed out the window. "In ten months you turned a skittish people-shy dragon that HATED Toothless and couldn't fly into not only the only dragon on Berk who can seriously compete with Toothless in the air; but also the Mother of Toothless' hatchling! If that's not good Mothering, then I don't know what is!"

"You….think so?" she peeked up at her husband, who laughed.

"You're asking my advice? You're not acting like yourself, Astrid! Last year you would have kicked my butt if I'd tried to put my opinion into things. Yes, of course I think so!" he leaned over and kissed Astrid again, on the cheek. "I've no idea why this was kept secret from me; I only have six months to build a nursery!" he straightened up and pulled Astrid with him to the door. "We've got to get started! He'll need another room; first floor, or second floor do you think?"

"He?"

"Or she. A girl would be fine!"

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**One more chapter to go!**


	27. Chapter 27: Going to be Okay

**OMG, it's finally the last chapter! I feel like crying, it's like the last day of school! Thank you to everyone who reads this story, I owe it's success to you all!**

**Be ready of the sequel, chapter one is already written! It's probably be up within hours of this chapter being put up! And, since this story was more like a jumble of scenarios in which Frigma dealt with life and didn't actually contain any plot, the next story had a really really good plot to compensate! I hope ya'll like it just as much as this story!**

**And so, without further ado, I present, for the last time, the next chapter of Tough Love!**

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**Chapter Twenty Seven: Going to be Fine**

Haakon knew there was something different about his Mother. Not terrible different; she looked just fine and she was nice like a Mother should be, but from the minute Haakon set eyes on her, he just knew. His father was completely normal in his opinion. But his Mother didn't have eyes like Toothless did; her eyes were bigger, and when she looked at you, you felt like she was looking right into your heart. There was something….un-naturally intelligent about those eyes.

She also exhibited unusual behavior. Haakon had caught her several times scratching these funny lines into the ground, to which the humans Astrid and Hiccup would respond to or even scratch more lines. Haakon didn't know if his father understood things the way he did, but Haakon himself was starting to understand that Wingless and the humans could communicate through those lines. They meant things to the humans, but Haakon could not figure them out to save his life! He knew they were supposed to say things, but he couldn't decipher them.

That didn't stop Haakon from adoring his Mother. Wingless may not have been perfect, but she was the best Mother he'd ever had (besides being the ONLY Mother he'd ever had!) He wanted to be just like her; he wanted to learn about those weird lines, and he wanted to speak with the humans like she could. He wanted to be like his Father, too, but for different reasons. Toothless was strong and fast and fierce, and Haakon hoped he'd look just like his dad when he grew older. Secretly, though, he wished his eyes looked like Wingless', even though he knew they didn't. He wanted people to look at him and think he was smart.

Now, Haakon was rather smart for a dragon. Even if he couldn't read those letters (yet) he did have a special knack for picking up on words that Hiccup and Astrid would say. In half the time it took Toothless to learn them, he knew the meaning of 'Stay' 'Down' 'Fish' 'Go' and 'Come'. Haakon was a regular Ben Stein!

He also grew incredibly fast! In three months, by the middle of autumn, he'd tripled in size (though he started out about the size of a boot) and was almost as big as his parents. The house would have probably collapsed from being so crowded, had Hiccup not commissioned Gobber and Stoick to help build up a new wing of the house. Hiccup's was quickly becoming the biggest residence in Berk, and though the construction was not done by the time three months had past, he'd already build the nursery and had started construction on a shoot-off room that he'd been planning to let the dragons have free-run of.

Astrid was five months pregnant by then, and Frigma was relieved that Hiccup already knew about the baby; with the size of that belly, she didn't know how she'd of hidden it much longer! She felt so happy for her friend, though sad at the same time. A baby was a blessing, but she felt empathy for the impatience Astrid was showing! Frigma hadn't even known about Haakon when he was still an egg inside of her, and it had only taken three weeks for him to hatch once he'd been laid, but poor Astrid still had four more months of waiting to do before the little baby was born! The wait was excruciating!

Frigma had told Astrid this (written on the ground, of course) but Astrid had just laughed it away.

"It's easy to wait for the little menace; he's been reeking such havoc inside me, just imagine what he'll do when he's out!" This struck Frigma as odd; even when she'd know the woman when she was human, Frigma had never known her friend to be patient! The change was so…sudden! But then again, having a baby really woke you up; made you realize what was really important in life, and what was worth waiting for.

That said, there were some things Frigma could wait years and years for, but before she knew it, they were sneaking up right upon her! It seemed like just yesterday little Haakon was the size of her foot, struggling to catch the embers in the hearth on fire, and now, he was being led to the cliff side by his reckless and soon-to-be-beaten father, Toothless. What was that crazy lizard doing? He wasn't planning on letting Haakon fly, was he? Not over Frigma's cold, dead body!

She'd seen the Father and Son leaping off of roofs and out of trees, stretching their wings and practicing, and that had been all fine and good, but…this was the open sea, for Thor's sake! What was Toothless thinking! He was going to get her precious baby killed, or worse!

She'd been sitting by the house, sharpening her nails on the frame-work (Astrid and Hiccup hated that, but scratching like that was just like a good morning stretch!) when she'd seen the two start to lumber off. She'd stupidly smiled as she watched them leave, and it had taken her several minutes to realize what they were going to do. And when she did understand, they were already long gone.

Astrid had heard the shriek and raced outside, only to see her dragon leap from the roof-top and fly in the direction of the cliff above the docks. What was she playing at, waking up the whole town at this hour? The sun had just risen, Astrid herself had been asleep! But she tugged on her boots anyway, curious as to what was the matter with Wingless.

She got to the cliff in time to see Wingless and Toothless wrestling around on the precipice, with Haakon standing nervously at the side. Whatever they were fighting about, it was obvious their son was at the bottom of it.

Toothless finally kicked Wingless to the side, at which time Astrid flung herself forward and grasped the dragon's tail, jerking her backwards.

"Wingless, what is this all about! What's the matter with you!" she cried, but before Wingless could scratch out an answer, Toothless started flapping his wings and nudging his son to the edge of the cliff. He shot a glance at Wingless, who, in turn, shot a pleading glance at Astrid.

"_Stop him!"_ she thought desperately. "_They won't listen to me! But they'll listen to you! So stop them before Haakon's killed!"_ Astrid didn't even have to hear her thoughts to know what the Nightfury was asking.

"Wingless; I know you're worried, but….excuse the pun, but they all have to fly from the nest sometime." She sat down next to her dragon and wrapped her arm around her neck. She wanted to make sure Wingless didn't try to interfere with this again. "And besides; you never know. Haakon may flop," Wingless sucked in air and looked at Astrid, her eyes wide. "But he might soar, too. You have to give him that chance to find out for himself. And, I know, whatever happens, you'll always be there to catch him, anyway."

Haakon watched his mother and Astrid talk, and then looked up at Toothless. He was impatient to fly, but he knew it worried Wingless. Hell, it worried Haakon, too! But he wanted to fly. He needed to fly! He knew Toothless couldn't fly with him, because of the weird thing on his tail, and, he wanted his Mother there to help him. She was always there to help him.

He walked back over to her, and as she turned her eyes on him, he bent his head and touched noses.

"Go on, Wingless. He wants you there with him." Wingless' eyes were round and watery, and she whimpered as she rose to her feet. She followed Haakon closely, and, the first time he tried to take off, she grabbed him by the tail and yanked him back down. Astrid didn't like that, and she told Wingless, too. So, the second time he took off, his Mother didn't stop him.

Frigma almost yelped as she watched her son leap from the edge. Her heart dropped through her chest as, in those first few harrowing moments, he looked as if he was going to fall out of the sky. Without thinking, she jumped over the edge after him , spreading her wings and stretching out to catch him, but before her claws could get him, his wings folded out, too. He shot upwards, out of her grasp, and Frigma could only watch as he flew high above her. He was shaky, but, as he made a sharp turn and turned towards her, she saw the look on his face. There was fear there, to be sure, but there was also joy. Pure, unbridled joy!

It was that moment that Frigma knew; he was going to be okay. But it wasn't just Haakon she knew would be alright. She herself had overcome so much in the past year, she was amazed she'd even made it this far. She smiled and turned her face to the sun. She would be okay, too.

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**The End.**


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